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Giulia Woergartner
@giuligartner
Landscape photographer based in Italy
Introducing Giulia Woergartner
Since her childhood, traveling has been an important part of Giulia’s life. The adventures that she and her family experienced together taught her about a world that is awaiting to be explored.
With the time, photography and exploration have became an important part of Guilia’s identity. When she is outdoors, finding little moments of happiness is really easy.
Her trip around New Zealand was a tipping point. Giulia spent several months traveling with a van discovering the most impressive landscapes of a country that is all about adventure. Along the way she captured unique moments and experiences that have been widely celebrated by the community. Her artistic style, elegant and full of wisdom, could not be catchier and this is just one of the many reasons why Giulia is inspiring so much with her travels!
Interview
Welcome Giulia! First of all, can you explain us what motivated you to pick a camera in the first place and what is driving you nowadays?
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share a little bit of myself and my work with your audience.
So, I have always been a very creative person and I am inspired by music, arts and of course everything visual, such as film and photography. I think that my family had an influence in this regard. My siblings and parents are very open minded. We have enjoyed a lot traveling together, exploring new places and experiencing new things all around the world.
Since my childhood, I have enjoyed using my mother’s camera. But when I became 14 years old, I finally purchased my first DSLR camera and then my passion for photography grew enormously.
At the beginning I did self-portraits, but I also captured a lot of moments with my friends. On my travels and every now and then I experienced with different photographic styles such as landscape, long exposure, urban and so on.
A year and a half ago I decided to upgrade my camera and get a full frame. Since then, everything seemed to head towards a more professional path where I was seriously starting to share photos on social media. Due to this hard work, people around the globe started to see my photographs and it seems like they liked them 🙂 I also had the opportunity to meet some amazing creatives who helped and guided me. They made my path as a photographer easier.
Nowadays I love being outdoors, creating unique stories with my camera. I just feel alive being outside, hiking mountains, camping, or swimming whenever I can. I really enjoy the company of my travel companions and together we can create amazing stories to tell.
I hope I can keep doing what I like the most. To me, taking photographs and exploring the world is a reward!
You have been to so many countries already! Was traveling a passion of yours before diving into photography or is the other way around, photography is your main motivation to keep traveling?
As I mentioned previously, the love for traveling came from my family as we always went on holidays together all around the world. So traveling has always been a part of my life and it has been something relatively normal for me.
Now, with photography, I definitely feel more attracted to raw and untouched nature rather than big and crowded cities. I also enjoy being in the city, but I am in a point of my life where I just prefer calm evenings at a lake or camping on a summit for instance.
Among all the countries you have visited, which country was the biggest surprise to you?
This year I did a trip to South America and I visited 3 different countries in 10 days. We started in Chile, maid our way to Bolivia in a jeep and finally ended up in Peru. It was such an amazing experience to see landscapes I have never seen before in my life, it just felt like being on a different planet. There were a lot desserts and dry areas with colorful lagoons as well as beautiful tropical rain forests and giant mountains to explore. It was definitely a challenge as most of the people didn’t speak English but we managed to communicate with our broken Spanish.
The people were also super friendly and helped us in any way they could. You can tell that the people living there don’t have a standard like we do in Europe. This experience really brings you back to the ground and makes you appreciate the warm showers and good food we take for granted in Europe. That is why I love traveling, it opens your eyes and reminds you of things you normally take for granted and you start appreciating them more.
I am really curious about your trip to New Zealand! You shared some beautiful photos from this country. Besides its wonderful landscapes, what did you like the most about the Kiwis? How would you describe its people and culture?
The trip to New Zealand has absolutely been one of the best things I have done for myself. It helped me to grow up and learn a lot about life, photography and myself. I did the trip totally on my own. It is a challenge to manage every thing by yourself in a country where you don’t know anyone. However, with the time I got very comfortable traveling alone and I spent 7 months living in a Van!
I got to meet a lot of local photographers through Instagram. A lot of them offered me to stay at their house and showed me how they live. The Kiwis are very welcoming. But most importantly, they are always up for an adventure or for a beer! 😛
Please now imagine for a sec that you have a super power! You can go back in time! What moment would you like to re-experience again?
That is a great question! There are so many great moments I had, especially this past year. I would definitely choose a moment from my trip around New Zealand. When I think about it, I still get goose bumps.
So, we decided to sleep on a mountain hut in the middle of the southern alps in New Zealand. When we woke up (quite early, by the way, to make sure we didn’t miss the first sun lights) there was still a lot of snow on the peaks. As such, when the sun light first hit the snow, a metallic glow covered it all. I remember this beautiful feeling while looking at these giant snow masses and gorgeous mountains glowing in a metallic purple tone. Although it was impossible to capture this moment with a camera, I will never forget this experience!
As a photographer, I am sure that you feel attached to all your photos. All your pictures represent unique moments of your life. However, among your works, do you have any picture that you really like? Which is your favorite photo?
When it comes to choose my favorite photo, I am often inclined to select a capture having a valuable experience attached. All of my New Zealand photos really mean a lot to me because they have such a personal value to me.
But you must know that I find it very difficult to choose only one photo. This is why I still think that my favorite photo is yet to come. Because I am looking forward to keep collecting unique moments worth remembering.
You have been traveling in a van for a while now! What do you like the most about the nomad lifestyle?
The best thing about traveling with a van is the feeling of freedom. Being able to travel at my own pace and play by my own rules is something I value.
There is another important lesson I learnt from this experience. Having space in the Van, specially if you are living and traveling in it, is almost impossible. Thus, I needed to have only the necessary things and be practical. This made me realize that we don’t need a lot to be happy actually.
When you are traveling alone you have to be flexible and open minded as challenges will appear. Your companion is yourself, so it’s to you who has to shut those negative voices in your head and take decisions for yourself.
"Many people think that traveling alone is super scary and unsafe, but with the right mindset and intuition you’ll be far away from any potential danger."
New Zealand is generally a very safe place to travel. It’s not riddled with disease and it doesn’t have any animals that can kill you. I just loved having everything I needed with me all the time, being able to pull over and stay wherever I felt like staying.
What are the three most valuable personal lessons you have learned traveling?
When you have a dream or a vision, you just have to go for it. Don’t let anyone talk you out of it, no matter how silly or ridiculous your dream might appear to others, following your passion is the only thing that will bring you happiness.
I really live by this saying and I love feeling alive and knowing that what I am doing and where I am at is exactly where I am meant to be. It just feels right.
In one of your YouTube videos you mentioned that freedom is really important to you. Does traveling allowed you to reach a higher feeling of freedom and if so, why do you think that is?
Definitely, whenever I am out exploring, hiking, meeting new people, seeing new places and traveling I feel alive, I feel free and I feel like there is nothing else I need or where I rather be.
I think we all have the freedom to do what we want to do, we always try to find excuses when in the end there is no such thing as an excuse if you really want freedom.
Imagine yourself at the beginning of your professional career as a photographer. What four pieces of advice would you give to yourself?
Honestly, it is hard to think about any advice I would give to myself as I feel like I still need to learn so much and I am just at the beginning of my career.
Nevertheless, a piece of advice I would give to my younger self is to maybe wrap my head around the business side of photography, as it is a huge part of being a freelancer.
Another thing could be to be a little bit more patience, I tent to want things straight away but looking back at it now, I think I have learned a lot and evolved pretty quickly where others get stuck a lot.
Is there any artist/photographer who has inspired your art? Can you name three?
There a lot of creatives I have met and that inspire me. Every person I have met on this journey had an impact on me and my work I guess.
It is hard to choose only a few as there are so many creative minds to look up to and learn from.
Someone I have been following since the very beginning of my journey is Maximilian Münch (@muenchmax) on Instagram. Another creative I really look up to is Alex Strohl (@alexstrohl) and last but not least Jason Charles Hill (@jasoncharleshill).
Any new projects coming up or countries you will be visiting soon?
I’m actually in Iceland right now and then I will spend some time at home in the Dolomites. Hopefully go to Norway and re visit one of my favorite places, the Faroe Islands. Then at the end of the year I want to escape the European Winter and go to Patagonia, South Africa and maybe even back to New Zealand.
