Julie Joubert

Julie Joubert
France
Born in 1989
Graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Lives and works in Paris, France
julie.joubertflanquart@gmail.com
IG @juliejoubertphotography

Patria Nostra
For Patria Nostra, I spent two years immersed in various structures of the Foreign Legion in France. Enlisting men from all over the world in search of a second chance, the Legion assigns them a new identity upon selection. These men have given up everything – homeland, culture, language, family – in the hope of a new life. Some are seeking to escape a precarious situation, a violent environment or the justice system in their own country.
Intrigued by the scandalous reputation and opacity of this closed environment, I propose to question the myth and examine the representations of hypermasculinity specific to the army. Starting from the cult of the muscular body as a point of departure for the construction of a new identity, these photographs also seek to reveal the vulnerability of these young men in training.
I provide information on the early stages of a legionnaire’s career – selection, training, integration – then examine the tensions between military uniformity and the persistent individuality of the people who make up the army, offering a more universal reflection on belonging and autonomy, on our origins and the place we seek to carve out for ourselves in society.