Julia Dean

What feels like destiny led me to Los Angeles at 39. I had no job and little money. I had been a freelance photojournalist and college instructor for 12 years before in a variety of different places. Teaching and photographing—these days on the streets of L.A.—are equally important in my life. It is what led me to start The Julia Dean Photo Workshops on January 1, 1999, now a nonprofit, the Los Angeles Center of Photography. This is what I was meant to do.