About Carla
For the past twenty-five years, Carla Coulson has lived and worked in Italy, France, and Greece, exploring her inner and outer world through photography and words.
Carla’s love of joy, colour, tradition, and her curiosity for the deeper questions of life are reflected in her fine art series, Young Girl in Bloom, The Feeling of Greatness, Rewilding, and her joyous beach series, Italian Stories.
Carla’s work has been published in Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Gourmet Traveller, and many other fine magazines, including Italian fashion magazine Collezioni.
Carla Coulson was born in Sydney, Australia and grew up in country New South Wales, moving every three years until the age of 16, where she returned to live in Sydney with her family. Her formative years and the experience of moving had a big impact on her values and work today.
In 2002, Carla had her first work published in Marie Claire and Qantas Magazine, marking the beginning of a 15-year career during which she was commissioned by and contributed to Harper’s Bazaar, Gourmet Traveller, Collezioni, Belle, Inside Out, and many of the world’s leading magazines.
In 2005, her first book, Italian Joy, was published by Penguin Books Australia and became a bestseller about her journey to living a life of passion and authenticity in Italy. The same year, along with her Italian husband, she moved to Paris, and in the following years, Carla co-authored with Vicki Archer My French Life, French Essence, and two of her own books, Paris Tango and Chasing A Dream. She also was commissioned to photograph My Amalfi Coast by Amanda Tabberer and Made in Italy by Silvia Colloca.
Obsessed with the journey to self, Carla studied to be a life coach in 2014. She then created a coaching program for over 200 women in 2018 called Yes, Yes, Yes - Say Yes to Yourself, guiding women on their path to their authentic self, exploring creativity, new experiences, and personal joy.
In 2015, Carla started creating her own work, Italian Stories, big bright and joyful images of Italian beaches in the height of summer, and started to weave her message of authenticity and journey to self in her personal work, Young Girl in Bloom.
Young Girl in Bloom became a ‘viral’ success, and the work is represented in Australia, Canada, and the USA, including a solo exhibition in Melbourne in 2018. Young Girl in Bloom is a limited edition series of work that is sold out across many of the editions.
After 17 years living and working in Paris, in 2021 Carla and her husband moved to Greece, signalling a return to her first love, that of photography. Carla continues to work creating her own photography projects on subjects that feed her soul and, hopefully, yours too.