After a very busy first month at Flow, I’ve been given the opportunity to interview fellow newbie Julia Lloyd in a revealing interview – not really but always wanted to write that. We started working at Flow at the same time in July and both came from Caxton in search of new experiences.
Julia’s always loved anything to do with words – writing and copy-editing – but it was for magazines and newspapers. “Much to the disappointment of my lawyer father, the day after I received my legal BA I joined a newspaper to become a photographer,” says Julia. She worked as a photographer at Beeld for about a decade in the 1980s.
She then moved to Caxton magazines as an in-house photographer, where she applied for a photojournalist position. “At the time there were about three in the country, nothing like today when digital cameras and Photoshop have turned everyone into a photographer.”
She worked specifically for lifestyle and travel magazines such as Country Life and Garden and Home, where she spent the next 15 years having a “ball”.
Four years ago Julia moved back to Jo’burg after a brief stint in Cape Town because she wanted to sub-edit, which she feels is the best training for writing. She chose newspapers for a no-frills, no-fuss kind of editing experience and that’s when she was appointed sub-editor for Caxton community newspapers – a job she was thrilled to get.
Julia’s introduction to Flow has been positive. “It’s a top-class outfit,” she says of her new workplace. “Flow has such high standards. Nothing but the best works here.”
Julia knew she was in for the techno-shock of her life when she joined Flow. “I was used to the PC as nifty typewriter.” She’s glad, though, because she came to Flow for a complete change and says she would’ve been devastated had the move been easier.
So far, she says the transition has been made even easier by the clever and thoughtful “chief honcho” in the studio, Colin Ford, along with the wonderful and warm staff at Flow.