Julia Cumes is a South African-born photographer based on Cape Cod since 2001. Her work explores themes of identity, belonging, and women’s stories across the globe. With a background in photojournalism, she brings a storytelling lens to every project—whether documenting public health, environmental resilience, and gender equity, or creating narrative portraiture that explores the human stories shaping communities from East Africa to South Asia to coastal New England.
Julia has worked extensively with nonprofits and editorial publications, and her images have appeared in The New York Times and The Boston Globe, among others. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 2024, she was named “Artist of the Year” by the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod. She believes in photography’s power to foster empathy and reveal lives that might otherwise remain unseen. Explore her work at juliacumes.com or on instagram @juliacumes.
