la caida (2005) Photography by Alamoukaikai

Julien Barraud is a french photographer and musician. since he was very young, he has always been interested in traditional and folklorical music from Africa, the Carribean islands an South America. He participated to all kinds of drumming classes in Africa, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Venezuela. In Dominican Republic, he studied both latin and traditional percusions and played during a year with El Ballet Folklorico Areito and various voodoo celebrations. He has made investigations in Morrocco, Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso on musical traditions, and began to photograph those celebrations in Mali and Venezuela. Through the years he's been a passionate student of two traditional african instruments, the "balafon" and the "tamani". In 2005, he performed with his group Sandja in the Universidad Central de Venezuela en Caracas a musical and visual show. The project called "Balafolia" included his photographs showed on wide screen and a concert with original compositions that mixed african and afro-american music. He's now working on a new project with photographs and other technics.

• Nationality: FRANCE
• Date of birth : 1974
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary French Artists