Jules Renault is a director and photographer who lives and works in Paris.
His visual aesthetics are heavily influenced by late 1990s / early 2000s hip-hop music, inline street skating videos, cinema and fashion.
After studying film and post-production in Paris, Jules began his creative journey between Los Angeles, New York City, and Boston, spending over a year producing skate videos, music videos, and developing a deep interest in African American culture.
Back in France as a self-taught director, he continuously works on music videos with New York artists and finds his fulfillment in directing. Soon, he directed his first campaigns for brands that resonate with him, such as Hennessy, Nike, Jordan, Reebok, L'Oréal, and Adidas…
In 2021, Jules directed an advertisement for the Distance brand titled "Outlaw Runners," depicting a group of runners caught exceeding the new 30 km/h city speed limit. This advertisement generated significant buzz and was one of the most awarded ads of the year.
Jules's style is characterized by his sense of visual rhythm and sharp perspective on urban culture. He is constantly seeking personal projects and creative growth, with a particular interest in documentary filmmaking. In 2018, he directed his second short documentary titled "MELT. A Smoking Story," which was selected in multiple US festivals, exploring American barbecue culture.
In addition to filmmaking, he explores the realms of fashion and documentary as a photographer. In the summer of 2021, he published a book of documentary photographs alongside his first solo exhibition titled "Crown Heights • Suspended In Time," addressing the extreme gentrification of African American neighborhoods in Brooklyn.
Jules is drawn to the visual possibilities offered by textiles and the creative space of fashion. He continuously collaborates with young Parisian designers and works on fashion campaigns, runway shows, and editorial shoots.
In both film and photography, Jules likes to fully engage in his craft. Whether it's editing his films himself, working in the darkroom, or retouching, he values having control over the post-production process, defining his style through this meticulous approach.
Jules spends his free time traveling and experimenting with analog photography, always seeking new visual experiences and driven by the ambition to combine classicism in imagery with a modern rhythm that characterizes his style