Sham Glam
Glamour? Larousse dictionary defines it as ‘a type of sophisticated sex appeal’ and mentions certain Hollywood stars. Makeup, injections, and now on social media, filters like Bold Glamour.’The face, theater of the soul, becomes the one of fantasy. Behind the doll-like mask, it’s either a man’s plaything or a venomous flower. A role playing and schizophrenic mimic like a love song for others or oneself. Is it a lie or an illumination of raw intimacy? Bret Easton Ellis’s Glamorama and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet partially unveil the curtain on the backstage. However, glamour also brings us back to our origins, akin to the courtship displays of birds; it is intrinsic to life — flowers, birds, fish, humans — and is one of the levers of our survival. Sometimes a mask, sometimes a confession, it veils and unveils us, in the manner of Mishima: "What people perceived as an attitude on my part was actually the expression of my need to affirm my true nature, and it was precisely what people considered as my true self that was a disguise.” It is an invitation to open the door, a call from the eye to see in the darkness. Subtle deceits that knock down dogmas and unlocks censorships. /
Blue Velvet
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Kamen no Kokuhaku
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Story of the Eye
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Interview with a Vamp
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¡ Atame !
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Mermaid’ Song
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Madonna del Cardellino
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Mirror Mirror
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Beauty Fool
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He Hides Under His Shadow
I came across the sentence ‘il se cache sous son ombre’ in Eric Chevillard’s latest novel, La Chambre à Brouillard. I’m drawn to the poetic weight of these words; they transport me back to my own universe. In my perception, shadow isn’t so much about darkness in a negative sense. It’s more about the concept of mystery, of what lies hidden within it. The shadow veils certain parts of the Whole, becoming a catalyst for imagination. It also shelters us from prying eyes, safeguarding our intimacy. It envelops our bodies, blurring the contours like a shroud of black fog. The world then turns ethereal and uncertain. This act of seeking refuge in shadows is a means to combat the harshness of day and all its conventions. It’s a plunge into a realm of subtle forms, allowing our minds to unfurl their own subversive nature. /
À l’Ombre des Jeunes Filles
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La Face Cachée
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Blackout
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Wagahai Wa Neko De Aru
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Cache-Cœur
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Nightbird
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Moonlight Serenade
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Colors of Darkness
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La nuit il est le rêve et le fantôme
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Se Meurt Of Love
Dying of love sounds like a romantic thought. It is a popular theme in all cultures of all eras. For my part, I met Eros & Thanatos as a duo during my teens. Discovering my homosexuality in the 90s meant discovering gay love, but also its new dark shadow: AIDS. I learned, among the contemporaries of that time, now dead from loving, that love could also be poison. The autobiographical novels of Hervé Guibert revealed to me what it was to be gay at the same time as what it was to be sick. Les nuits fauves by Cyril Collard taught me that a fiery kiss could bite. Reading these books at that time made me discover love as much as our own finitude. A double-edged feeling. /
Thanatos Bogosse
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Go Commando
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Gray Gay
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Sea Sex & Seum
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Plastic Eros
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Fleur d’Épine
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Cupidon Tête de Con
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Dust Kiss
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Cœur Lourd
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I Believe It’s A Door
Each image is a story in itself. And when two images are brought together, do they form two separate stories or the birth of a new narrative? They open a door between two universes and allow them to interact. It’s not an entrance, not an exit, but a passage—a place of friction. It’s the coexistence of two images that, together, become something entirely new. /
Sodome & Gomorrhe
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Rires Mordants
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Self-Worship
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Penelope’s Night
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Désir Plaisir
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Chanson Grise
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Saturnian Poem
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Masculin Assassin
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Full Moon
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All Images Will Disappear
While reading Annie Ernaux’s book Les années, I was struck by the first sentence that introduces the concept of her novel ‘Toutes les images disparaîtront’. All these recorded images—public or private—throughout our lives. The transmitted, the forgotten. Beautiful, ugly, commercial, family, artistic, journalistic, political, erotic, failed, framed, manipulated, or certified, they constitute an intimate and shared culture simultaneously. They mark the beginning, the middle, and the end of a story. /
Castle Of Sand
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Frozen Borderline
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Terre Neuve
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Rainbow Biker
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Frozen Woman
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Pour Toujours
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Last Fling
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Age Of Solastalgia
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Marble City
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© Jules Julien 2024