Julie Rufo is a freelance photographer based in Washington DC. Julie enjoys taking pictures from different places around the globe and can often be found traveling with nothing but a backpack and her camera. Her goal as a photographer is to capture authentic, candid photos that represent the beauty and diversity of the world we live in.
Julie Rufo discovered her love for photography in high school when a friend asked her to take some family pictures. Although her friend had envisioned traditional, posed family portraits, Julie immediately was captivated by the group’s interactions with one another and began taking photographs in between poses. After the shoot, Julie, her friend, and the family all agreed that the best pictures of the day were the unplanned ones. Those images portrayed each individual’s personality in a unique fashion and captured the family’s close relationships with one another in a way that they have cherished ever since.
The only things that Julie Rufo enjoys more than taking pictures are traveling and meeting new people. She rarely can be found in one place for too long. She has visited 30 out of the 50 states (mostly during long road trips) and hopes to visit the rest soon. She also spent some time living in England and makes an effort to visit regularly. Julie’s other favorite travel destinations include Greece, Iceland, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Africa, and Chile.
On her adventures, Julie Rufo makes an effort to immerse herself in the local culture to enjoy an authentic travel experience. Although she is usually traveling alone, she is always looking to meet new people and understand how different cultures operate. She has found that most people are more than willing to share aspects of their culture with tourists, as long as they are asked humbly, respectfully, and from a place of genuine curiosity.
Along her travels, Julie Rufo likes to experiment with different types of local cuisine. She especially loves to learn how to cook some of these dishes and make them at home. Her friends and family tease her that she’s never home and that when she is home, she is usually trying to get them to eat something new and exotic. Despite the jokes, some of Julie’s favorite moments are shared around the table with friends, looking at pictures of her journeys across the globe and catching up on events that she’s missed at home.
Julie Rufo graduated from Virginia Tech University with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Technologies. While earning her undergraduate degree, Julie spent a semester studying in England, which is when she discovered her love for travel and other cultures. She maintains several relationships with friends she met in England and frequently sends them pictures of her latest adventures. A few have even joined her for road trips across the US!
When Julie Rufo isn’t in a car, on an airplane or behind a lens, she can also be found riding a bike, running, hiking, drawing, or binge-watching “The Office.”
