Artist Julia Fox, a New York photographer who has already lived a colourful life filled with excitement and danger, released a book entitled PTSD which remembers a chance time in her life.

In 2015 Fox, who had already survived an overdose at the age of 17, was desperate for break from the hustle and bustle of New York City, headed into the American South for a taste of something new and photographed what she did, saw and experienced.

“My car broke in Tennessee so my friend Harmony and I rented a car and drove down to Louisiana to stay at my friend Jack’s house temporarily,” Fox explained to Dazed about the trip. “We thought we would stay there for two weeks at most, but those two weeks turned into six months,” she added.

It was during this time Fox her time in Louisiana falling in and out of love with a man named John, who, as Fox described it, was a “sadomasochistic prostitute.”

She added: “I met John there and I couldn’t leave him. Louisiana is such a mystical land so rich with history. I made sure to explore every crevice of it. I actually almost died in doing so. I made sure to cover all of it honestly and meticulously.”

In the book, which subsequently became an exhibition at New York’s Magic Gallery, blends images of John, herself among selected love letters and poems: “They’re Romeo-and-Juliet level tragic, wild, and malignant. Throughout the tale, told in words and pictures, is the knowledge that the love, for all its intensity, will end one way or another in disaster,” Fox explains in a separate interview with Feature Shoot.

Along the way Fox photographed the sunset, a boy who had been punched in the face by his father after attempting to drive home drunk, people shooting up in motel rooms and more.

“I just love feeling things. I usually know when something is going to end up being catastrophic but I don’t really care,” Fox says. “I find that the things that end up being earth-shattering are the things that give me the most thrill.”

Julia Fox’s book PTSD is available to buy, here.













(All images via Dazed)