Nadia Lee Cohen / Martin Parr: JULIE BULLARD
British photographers Nadia Lee Cohen and Martin Parr unite for a richly stylised, unmistakably British collaboration in Julie Bullard, a fictional photo album published by IDEA and launching May 15, just in time for Photo London.
With over 100 photographs, the book offers a razor-sharp portrayal of small-town Essex, blending Parr’s anthropological eye with Cohen’s cinematic worldbuilding.
The title pays homage to Cohen’s childhood babysitter—Julie Bullard—described as her “first encounter with glamour.” In this semi-fictional reimagining, Cohen steps in front of the camera to inhabit the role of Julie herself, joining a cast that includes Scarlett Carlos Clarke as her sister Jane and Frankie Park as their mother, Sharon. All three don prosthetic noses, creating a bizarre yet oddly tender family resemblance.
Shot in classic Parr style—observational, dry, and hyper-specific—the images are meticulously staged: Julie bottle-feeding a baby in a waitress uniform, posing in ‘90s wedding glam, or lounging in wood-paneled rooms straight out of a suburban dream. The result is a universe that feels both deeply familiar and completely artificial.
The book itself is a carefully crafted object, modelled on a 1970s family photo album discovered on eBay. Faux leather padded boards, a gold metal spiral binding, and vintage design details heighten the sense of nostalgic fiction. It’s a visual pastiche with teeth: clever, uncanny, and uncomfortably close to home.
Julie Bullard extends Parr’s ongoing exploration of Britishness into the fictional realm, while echoing Cohen’s earlier works like Hello My Name Is, where she transformed herself into 33 personas using elaborate prosthetics and costuming. Together, they create a portrait of invented memory that asks where truth ends and performance begins.
About the Authors
Martin Parr is a British photographer and filmmaker, born in 1952 in Epsom, Surrey. His passion for photography began early, inspired and supported by his grandfather, an enthusiastic amateur photographer. He studied at Manchester Polytechnic between 1970 and 1973, where he laid the foundation for what would become a distinguished and influential career.
Parr is internationally recognized for his distinctive approach to social documentary photography. His work often blends humor, irony, and bold color to explore themes of class, consumerism, and everyday life. In 1994, he became a full member of Magnum Photos, cementing his role in the global photography community.
Over the decades, Parr expanded his practice to include film, fashion, advertising, and curatorial work. He holds a Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous photography exhibition, with Common Sense displayed in 41 venues around the world on a single day in 1999.
His career has been celebrated with numerous retrospectives, awards, and curatorial roles, including artistic director at Rencontres d’Arles (2004), guest curator at the New York Photo Festival (2008), and director of the Brighton Photo Biennial (2010). He has also held academic posts, including professorships at the University of Wales and the University of Ulster.
Parr is the co-author of The Chinese Photobook (2015) and the curator of Strange and Familiar (2016), a major exhibition exploring how foreign photographers have portrayed the UK. His work was also the focus of Only Human, a 2019 show at the National Portrait Gallery that delved into British identity.
He served as president of Magnum Photos from 2013 to 2017 and opened the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol in 2017. In recognition of his contributions, he has received numerous honors, including the Sony World Photography Award (2017), a CBE (2021), an honorary degree (2023), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the La Gacilly-Baden Photo Festival (2024).
Martin Parr has published over 120 books of his own work and edited more than 30, establishing him as one of the most prolific and influential voices in contemporary photography.
Nadia Lee Cohen is a British photographer, filmmaker, artist, and model, born in Essex in 1990. Raised in the English countryside by an Israeli father and a British-Ukrainian mother, she studied fashion styling and photography at the London College of Fashion, where she earned both a BA and MA. Her early work involved building cinematic sets in her family’s garage, a practice that evolved into her signature style: bold, surreal, and character-driven imagery.
After moving to Los Angeles, Cohen found inspiration in the stark contrast between Hollywood’s fantasy and its gritty reality. This contrast shaped her first monograph, Women (2020), a series of stylized portraits published by IDEA. Her second book, Hello My Name Is (2021), featured her transformation into 33 invented characters, each accompanied by symbolic objects.
Cohen has directed music videos for artists like Tyler, the Creator and A$AP Rocky, and photographed major figures such as Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, and Sophia Loren. She has also worked on campaigns for Gucci, Balenciaga, Schiaparelli, and other top fashion houses.
As a model and actress, Cohen has appeared in films and fashion shows, including a role in Black Licorice and runway work for Savage X Fenty. In 2022, she opened her first U.S. solo exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch in Los Angeles. Most recently, she collaborated with the Italian brand Paris Texas on a footwear line. Cohen’s work bridges photography, performance, and pop culture, exploring themes of identity, beauty, and artificiality with vivid and unsettling style.
