Julia Cassou, a nomadic photographer known for her long-distance expeditions, possesses a disarmingly simple approach to life and work. As discrete behind her camera lens as she is mischievous when animating stories of her adventures on rock faces around the world, she lives freely and strongly like the wind from her converted van home. This intrepid photographer has spent over seven years traveling from climbing spots to big walls at the ends of the earth, accompanying athletes to immortalize their projects.
Despite her preference for holding the camera rather than posing for it, Cassou has been involved in nearly every major climbing photography project across diverse locations including Spain, Patagonia, Iceland, Verdon, Pakistan, Greenland, and the United States. Her months roll by without repetition, each bringing new challenges and landscapes. She was the photographer behind the film "Cap sur El Cap," which retraced the epic journey of a group of climbers who sailed to reach the mythical El Capitan wall. She also captured the stunning photographs of Sean Villanueva and Nico Favresse on the Mirror Wall in Greenland.
Cassou's journey to professional photography began with a foundational solo trip to India for climbing. "At that moment, I was really scraping by and I realized that I absolutely didn't want to be a trainer. Taking photos in a moving car is something I absolutely love. I want to do photography. I've always known it," she explains. This gut feeling guided the rest of her existence. With a state diploma that allowed her to supervise climbing, she worked intensively for three weeks to buy a camera.
"It's the camera body I still have today," she smiles, referring to her Canon 1Dx, which is twelve years old. "I should probably change it, actually, because it's really old." In her early days, financial constraints shaped her approach: "I used to sell a photo for 100 euros and tell myself: 'I can live for three weeks!' I followed the rhythm of the cliff seasons to find myself in the same place as the pro climbers and be able to photograph them."
After "Cap sur El Cap" in 2021-2022, projects began to chain together rapidly. "This trip taught me that you can sleep anywhere," she summarizes. She found herself embarked on expeditions with Sean Villanueva, facing challenges that tested her limits. "In Patagonia, you're always on the edge and I had never walked eight hours with a backpack. I thought I was going to die. And indeed, generally, every day, you have two options: either you're going to die, or you're going to be very close to dying."
She recounts with grand gestures the crossing of a very exposed slab in approach shoes, the small roof that had to be climbed, and the biting cold of late afternoons. "It was hyper exposed. I was thinking, not only am I going to die but I'm coming across as a coward. The guys will never want to work with me again and as a result, they'll never want to work with women again." The pressure weighed heavily on Cassou beyond just the weight of the backpack.
"This kind of expedition is the supreme boys club," she describes. "I had to prove that I'm not a whiner, for all those who follow." It took time and long conversations with her friend Lise Billon to accept the fear. "I hadn't really understood who I had left with," she laughs. "It took me almost a year to be proud of what I had accomplished."
A few years later, she would fly to Greenland to open a new route with the same Sean Villanueva and his companions. Fear has now become part of the landscape for her adventures. "Except when you have your eye in the viewfinder!" she emphasizes. "That erases all fears." This ability to find courage and focus through her camera lens continues to drive her photography career, allowing her to capture some of the most challenging and remote climbing expeditions in the world while living her nomadic lifestyle from her converted van.
