Justin-Julius Santos, born in 1971, grew up in Los Angeles. It is where he embarked on a successful career in fashion photography; over the course of his career his images have been featured in magazines, advertising and numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide.
His images are at once gentle, provocative, stylized and wanton, exactly as he desires them to be. He seeks to titillate the viewer with his photographs, to make you behold the beauty and eroticism of the image as a reflection of the self and perhaps question your own sexuality in the process. Carnality aside, he remains a romantic at heart, idealistically drawn to the concept of beauty in everything, a sentiment confirmed by his inability to touch up his photography, stating “I would rather touch them up with lighting.”
Santos is often praised as a doyenne of lighting, a title well deserved for an autodidact. In turn, by mastering a self-taught artistic process he has also mastered the ability to illuminate the soul behind the subject. He continues to seek out each individual psyche, saying “I want to feel the subject”— and the viewer does. Santos works to discover the image’s perfect temperament through precise lighting and a visceral connection to the subject of every photograph.
For Santos, the process of photographing a person is an intense activity not only requiring technical ability, but also an immense tenderness toward his subject.
“In order to photograph, I have to fall in love,” he says emotionally. “I just can’t take from a subject without understanding and loving them.”
An avid fan of the cinema, Santos also cites the moving picture as an influence in his photography. For him, photographs are like frames in a film, with each image prompting curiosity of what proceeded and what is to follow. He believes that images should “make you want to know more about the person, because there is always more.” It is precisely this outlook that has brought him to his most recent project, Meeting Strangers.
Debuting in 2007, Meeting Strangers captures the unbridled sensuality of youth using a wide variety of visual techniques. Culling classic black and white images, vivid color photography and an almost diaristic collection of Polaroid portraits, the composition is formed from quick studies of the literal man on the street. An involved project following his renowned Changes, a book featuring entries, articles and images that narrate the simple details of a subject’s life, Meeting Strangers continues to irradiate that which makes the individual both distinctive and elusive. Here Santos further develops his belief that by documenting everyday experiences we are better able to highlight and understand the changes of our lives, in particular those pertaining to love and sex.
Santos is currently at work on his next project, 20 Men Vol. 2, the successor to his previous exploration. He currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
Santos has been a contributor to publications including:
GQ (Spain)
Esquire (UK)
Upstreet (France)
Soma (USA)
Contents (USA)
20 ans (France, Italy)
Max (Germany)
Stern (Germany)
L’Optimum (France)
Blue (Australia)
BLVD (The Netherlands)
Squeeze (The Netherlands)
Detour (USA)
Soen (Japan)
Seventeen
Out (USA)
People (USA)
Cosmopolitan
Citizen K (France)
Out Traveler (USA)
Vogue (Japan)
Movieline (USA)
PREF ( FRANCE )
His advertising clients include:
Adidas, Playtex, DDB, Euro RSCG, Morgan
His work has also featured the following celebrities:
Monica Belucci
Kip Pardue
Judith Godreche
Romain Duris
Elodie Bouchez
Jean-Marc Barr
Jake Shears (SCISSORS SISTERS)
Guillermo del Toro
Stanislas Mehrar
Will Kemp
John Boorman
Gaullame Canet
Allessandro Gassman
Eduardo Noriega
Wes Craven