We were lucky to catch up with Julie Corder recently and have shared our conversation below.
Julie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
The most meaningful project I have worked on has got to be my first collection of orchid photos on metal, “The Orchid Sessions: When the Centers Hold”. I struggle with a mental illness schizo-affective disorder, bi-polar type and have been since I was 23 years old. After Alan and I got married, I was hospitalized a few years later and it was difficult for the both of us. We had always shared the love of photography and one day after recovering, he brought me an orchid flower home. I took a photograph and really liked it. Then I ventured out to other locations in the Charlotte area like Campbell’s Greenhouse and Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens to take orchid photos. The wonderful blooms really inspired me with their unique beauty and I decided to print some, as I was getting such a positive response from friends and family. I printed them locally, here in North Carolina, at Image Wizards, an hour north of Charlotte. By that time, I was also doing yoga photography for Olde Mecklenburg Brewery’s Yoga on Tap. I got into the Olde Mecklenburg Brewery’s Christmas Market and also took my collection to Coffey & Thompson Art Gallery & Frame in Uptown and back home to Columbia, S.C. to Over the Mantel Gallery. I was very well received and it really gave me a lot of confidence! I did several shows at both galleries and had my first solo exhibit at Coffey & Thompson Art Gallery in 2015, “Life In Orchids”. For 5 years until the Covid-19 pandemic, I worked as a Gallery Manager for Coffey & Thompson Art Gallery & Frame. Then, I opened up my own space at American Beauty Garden Center where I have been for several years. So, I would have to say that the first collection of orchid photographs really helped me see a light in the dark!
Julie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have been an artist since I was a small child. I always loved music and dancing , as well as poetry and reading and writing. When I was a junior in high school, I spent a summer at The Governor’s School for the Arts at Furman University in Greenville, S.C. for creative writing. I went to New York University after high school and studied print and photo journalism and Spanish. I studied abroad in Madrid spring of my junior year at NYU and graduated with honors from the College of Arts & Sciences in 3 and 1/2 years. I also studied acting at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU which helped with my course load. I published an article in a national jazz magazine, Down Beat Magazine out of Chicago, as I was graduating, so I decided to follow that path. I freelanced for many magazines and newspapers in New York, including the NY Daily News AIDS Awareness Magazine. I did that for several years, until I moved to Metuchen, N.J. in with family and decided to pursue photography. At this time was my first hospitalization for schizo-affective disorder, bi-polar type, which many were to follow. However, through a steady yoga practice and medication, I was able to take photographs for LifeTouch, write as a staff writer for The Star-Ledger News and volunteer at my grandmother’s church. Then, at 25, I moved back into my parent’s house in Columbia, S.C. I freelanced for The State Newspaper and the alternative weekly, The Free Times, where I got a job as a staff writer. I worked there for several years, then moved onto corporate world with Blue Cross Blue Shield. From 2009-2011, I commuted from Charlotte, N.C. to my job in Columbia at Blue Cross after I got engaged to my husband and moved to Charlotte, the Queen City. Keeping up with a steady yoga practice has always helped me navigate life, and after I moved to Charlotte, I began practing at Yoga One. I took my third yoga teacher training, as I have taken several in my life, and worked at the front desk and other various projects. It was there that I began to pick up photography again and finally in 2015 I produced a collection of orchid photography on metal and got into galleries, published in magazines, and began to work full-time as a gallery manager at Coffey & Thompson Art Gallery & Frame. Now, I mainly focus on florals and portrait photography and since 2020, have had a gallery in my husband’s business, American Beauty Garden Center.
Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
Personally, I don’t believe in crypto currency, so I do not not produce NFT’s.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I think the most rewarding part of being creative is collabrating and connecting with all different kinds of people in a positive manner.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.juliecorderphotography.com
- Instagram: @juliecorderphotography; @juliecorderart; @juliecordermusic
- Facebook: Julie Corder Photography
Image Credits
All images by Julie Corder .