Nadia Lee Cohen has worn many hats. In her 2021 series Hello, My Name Is, the Essex-born, LA-based photographer and director created, performed and shot 33 characters based on nametags she found. For her latest project, she steps into the shoes of Julie Bullard – a character inspired by a real woman named Julie Bullard who once babysat Cohen when she was a child.

However, don’t be fooled into thinking this is a faithful biographical depiction of Bullard’s life. Instead, she is a fictional character with her own narrative who just so happens to share some details of the real Bullard’s life.

In the project, which has been published as a limited-edition book by Idea, Cohen stars as the titular character alongside two actors who take on the roles of Julie’s mother and sister, each embellished with coordinated prosthetic noses.

Together, they embody an uncanny aesthetic universe, framed once through Cohen’s lens and a second time through Martin Parr’s. Cohen invited Parr, her favourite photographer, to shoot the series because of his place in the history of British documentary image-making.

“The actual Julie Bullard was my childhood babysitter and possibly the first woman I ever saw in real life with naturally blonde, curly hair. She was my first introduction to glamour in any form. I was starstruck,” Cohen recalls.

“Memories of her clothes, hair, makeup and home represent the essence of Britain in the 1990s and, for me, there was no one other than Martin to photograph the fragmented re-creation of that fondly remembered warm environment.” Cohen’s childhood awe of Bullard is tangible in the series, which sees the character incorporate a dash of glamour into the everyday.

“It was a nice surprise to be invited,” says Parr, who is the subject of a recent documentary by Lee Shulman. “I was intrigued to join her on this journey of childhood memories, and to try and capture that sense of innocence.” The project has launched with an installation at Dover Street Market in London, which recreates one of the shoots using life-sized replicas of both Parr and Cohen (as Bullard).

Besides the intricacy of the character and costume design by Cohen and her team, the project is most interesting in its ability to hold a mirror up to how everything from relationships to ceremonies to class are depicted in photography. According to the publisher, Parr “documented the goings-on as you would expect him to approach real life events”.

Julie Bullard illustrates the storytelling that exists in Parr’s work and indeed the entire genre of documentary photography, despite its claims to truth and reality. Both Parr and Cohen have always dealt with the tensions between reality and artificiality in their own ways; in this project, they come to a head in fascinating fashion.

Julie Bullard by Nadia Lee Cohen and Martin Parr is published by Idea; ideanow.online