Julian was born in Sussex, Southern England in 1964. After having been given a Pentax K1000 SLR camera as a 16th birthday present he discovered the joys of photography in the course of a halcyon summer spent taking pictures around the lakes of Sweden. After 3 years of Geography & Economics at university he felt the lure of the developer & fixer trays at Brighton Art College where he would sneak in to use the darkrooms to print photographs of visiting actors & musicians for the Brighton Arts Festival. Upon arriving in New York in 1989, he began assisting Fashion & Portrait photographers, among them Philip Lorca diCorcia, Mark Seliger & Dick Nystrom in lieu of a formal photographic education. In the 1990’s he moonlighted as a DJ in various lounges downtown & coordinated the music for a Cynthia Rowley runway show in Bryant Park.

On the set one day in 1993 he met his future wife & photographic partner Ngoc Minh Ngo. Upon being given a commission to shoot interiors of a large retail store, a collaboration began that turned into Minh+Wass. The duo went on to shoot lifestyle, food & travel work for Elle Décor, Travel+Leisure, Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, Bergdorf Goodman & Kenneth Cole.

Since the arrival in 2001 of their daughter, Julian & Ngoc have gone on to work separately. Julian's clients include Anthropolgie, LL Bean, House Beautiful & Elle Decoration.