By Julia Train
Twenty-three years ago, Julie Bertonazzi was a stay-at-home mother with three little boys, deciding if she wanted to go back to working in sales like she did before having kids. Now, she has a studio in Haddon Heights dedicated to empowering women through intimate beauty photography and painted portraits.
When it was time for Bertonazzi to work again, she didn’t want to return to her previous job and a friend mentioned to her that she should try being a photographer.
“I thought I would have more flexibility owning my own business, at the time, which I found was not true,” Bertonazzi, 56, said with a chuckle.
She said she went with the name “Jules” for her company because she didn’t want people to know that she was a woman in a time where photographers were mostly men.
Through teaching herself Photoshop and lighting techniques, and the help of other photographers giving her Photoshop and digital photography tips, she learned everything she needed for the art.
Bertonazzi turned her hobbies into a business. She had been taking photos as a hobby at family parties and of people she knew for as long as she could remember and she’d been painting since she was a child.
“If you look back at your hobbies, or what you loved to do when you were 7 or 8 years old… that’s what you end up back at,” she said.
Bertonazzi also has an associate degree in marketing, which she believes has helped her run the business.
“Running the business pretty much is, I would say, 80% marketing, 20% actually doing the photography,” she said.
Bertonazzi specializes in boudoir photography and painted portraits of women. She draws inspiration from the Italian artist Pino Daeni, who is known for his depictions of feminine, romantic women.
Before painting a portrait, Bertonazzi will first meet with the client privately and ask them a few questions to get to know them. She asks them who they are, how they want to be portrayed, pose ideas and any other questions that would help her create the perfect piece for her customer.
Bertonazzi then photographs the client. After she and the client come to a final decision on which portrait they like and she knows what they’re looking for, she digitally paints it on a Wacom tablet. During this step, she can change the background and add different elements.
She then prints it on a canvas and paints oils and acrylics over it. The finished product is called mixed media.
Bertonazzi says her average clientele consists of women around 55 years old, sizes 18 to 23 and often to either celebrate themselves after weight loss or surviving abuse or to remember their body before having a mastectomy.
“They’re sent to me sometimes, because it heals…they’re celebrating. It’s more than just, ‘Oh, I want to run around in lingerie and feel pretty,’” said Bertonazzi. “The thing in common with both the painting and the boudoir is they’re looking to fulfill a need… it’s making them feel good, and it’s doing something inside in a positive way.”
