justin-james

Gone...for now...

2010-09-10T18:22:00.001-07:00

i hang elsewhere lately.

http://justinwatsonjames.com

An unloved place.

2009-10-10T02:07:00.000-07:00

It would be pretentious and untrue to think that anyone missed my posts in the last year. It's the same sort of sentiment a young person applies to their personified journal. "I'm sorry it's been so long diary..." That sort of mentality is natural I guess. We want to believe our words have power and meaning to more then just ourselves.
Enough rambling for this late night.
Be swell non-existent readers. Stay that way or get that way as soon as possible.

clark and deming

2009-01-07T12:42:00.001-08:00

it's -7 degrees out before windchill. my face hurts thinking about the walk i just made. you may be asking yourself, why would anyone walk in this weather. well i am staying with my mom temporarily.
my mom is rehabbing our late 19th century home. walls are coming down. pipes are going in. usually i am not there during this construction. today i was.
a piece of ceiling hit me in the head.
the electricity got cut off.
i cannot think in complete sentences right now.

mind spillage - part I

2008-10-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've got more then a few things to say. I'm not sure where to start. That's the beauty of modern writing though. Nothing you "type" is set in stone. There is no permanence anymore. There is truly little left in these modern times that is constant and unchanging. Some might see this as a reason to give into one of the many religious outlets that exist. I do not fall into this group.
I purposely got lost in a more then a few suburbs of Chicago today. I had some extra time and a borrowed car. I drove down windy streets with neat lawns and perfectly paved streets. It made me uncomfortable. Maybe it was the consistency, the lack of originality or just all the McCain/Palin signs I saw. But I wanted out and to never return.
I am rambling.
For the last month I have been playing Tetris with groceries at Costco Wholesale. I'm the guy with the name tag and the friendly smile asking if you would like a box. Have you ever been asked if you wanted paper or plastic while checking out of a grocery store? It's a simple question that you usually already have an answer to. For whatever reason, when I ask someone if they would like a box, they freeze. It's like I've asked them if they want accept christ into the hearts. They stare at me. Look at the box. Look back at me. I swear it takes some people 30 seconds to answer this simple question. Then they might change there mind midstream. It is absurd.
The dryer is buzzing. Time to fold clothes and hit the road.

When I look up the sky is blue, but sometimes it's not.

2008-09-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

Last night a friend of mine told me that Cincinnati, OH sees less sun then Seattle, WA. I don't know if this is true. A hasty google search returned no data supporting this claim. However, It got me thinking.
During my several years in Ohio there were countless days of sunless existence. Just like so many other people who have heard the term, Seasonal Affective Disorder; I believe that the lack of sunlight in the Midwestern winters destroys my mood.

When I sat down to write this I had some sort of direction, but I have lost it now.

Sorry.

Maybe next time.

Summer Fading with Train Tracks

2008-09-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

Some recent photos.

a childhood forgotten

2008-07-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

my dad was always a mean son-of-a-bitch. he had a propensity for finding unique ways to punish me.
when i was 7 i wanted to see how fast i could go in my red radio flyer wagon. so one day i tied my blanket around my neck like a cape and pushed my wagon down to where my dad had parked his truck the night before, half on the lawn and half in the street. i attached the metal arm and plastic handle to the hook up on the back of my dads white pick up. i waited in the back until it got dark then dad, beer in hand, hopped in his car.
i had not anticipated the lack of oil in this rusty pick up, the smoke was thick and tasted what i would eventually describe as LA. i flew the four wheels bounced around and i had to hold on for dear life, but i was flying. when we got to the franks, the local bar everyone out in front was laughing at my dad. he reacted by throwing the half empty beer cans all over the cab at his laughing friends. soon after he discovered my little experiment.
he was not laughing. i thought i had flown on the way there, boy was i wrong. my dad picked me up and spun around and launched me like a shot-putter. i must of flown 15 feet in the air. i found myself tangled in an old evergreen tree. i don't remember much after this. the police showed up soon after, i did not speak to them.
the next day my dad bought a u-lock and walked me and my radio flyer to a bike stand. he locked my radio flyer to it. then he pulled a ham sandwich out of his pocket.
he placed the keys between the moldy bread and day old ham and told me to eat it. i sat there and swallowed to silver keys and spoiled food for ten minutes. now, finding the keys a few days later is an entirely different kind of story.

an assortment of now.

2008-06-19T02:19:00.000-07:00

walking downtown

2008-05-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

back in chicago.

for now.

a final print

2008-05-02T01:33:00.001-07:00

once upon a time...

2008-02-14T00:11:00.001-08:00

people coated glass with light sensitive material and created negatives.
this is a cropped scan (limited by the flat bed next to me) of a reasonably large glass negative, about 5x7.

i've been making wet process prints of 4 glass plate negatives like this one.
thanks to mellisa for letting me print them.

*it looks like a dog is running by in the front. maybe.

the real world

2008-02-03T13:59:00.000-08:00

As May rapidly approaches these three ambiguous words slip past the lips of many of this universities soon-to-be Graduates.

What makes this reality any less real?

2008-01-26T15:37:00.000-08:00

leaving childhood.

2008-01-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

in mere moments.
shifts in mind.
prefrontal developments.
divisiveness.
logic.
wonderment dissipates.
no more play.

a childhood left.

Slap A Non-Voter

2008-01-25T14:10:00.000-08:00

Recently, I have begun slapping people who were of legal age to vote in the last presidential election and neglected to do so. The looks on peoples faces after a light slap is priceless, but they get the point. P-Diddy, or what ever the hell he is calling himself these days, screamed "vote or die" last time around. That didn't work.
If you care, go ahead and slap a non-voter. It'll make a difference.
Trust me.

Faux-Pola Play

2008-01-24T00:23:00.000-08:00

View Album

Get your own

Accidental Happenings

2008-01-23T22:39:00.000-08:00

Experimenting With Kodalith

2008-01-20T18:16:00.001-08:00

Sunday Funday Experiments.

A Concept

2008-01-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

an empty post

2008-01-15T18:34:00.001-08:00

besides this photo

Speaking in Acronyms

2007-12-09T07:18:00.001-08:00

"Words have become anemic: they don't "make love" any more."
-Andre Breton

The addition of acronyms, such as lol and brb, to our national spoken vernacular terrifies me.
Are we that lazy that we cannot articulate our emotions or actions?
Is it really easier to say "lol" then actually laugh?
You tell me.

Elfed

2007-12-03T23:10:00.001-08:00

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1158026268

peephole photography

2007-12-02T21:04:00.001-08:00

bathroom play time

myself

painting

2007-12-02T18:25:00.001-08:00

photographing the personality, not the person

2007-11-28T13:16:00.001-08:00

More of attacking myself.

2007-11-27T21:41:00.000-08:00

sometimes we are our own worst enemy. some visually fun looks at this concept.

Perfect - Fred Holland

2007-11-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

I ran into this at the MCA in chicago.
And made this video.
I enjoyed it very much.

the death of the white pages

2007-11-25T18:10:00.000-08:00

937-627-1117
it is entirely likely that this will be the last time i ever have a traditional land line.
i feel a sort of nostalgic connection to this obsolete technology. if the telephone companies had not spent so much money and time maintaining this archaic wired communication system we would have let it die long ago.
the death of the white pages as we have known them is upon us. social communities such as facebook will be the only way to find contact information for my generation.
it's odd.

spare time with spare photos.

2007-11-19T13:35:00.001-08:00

leftover from that project.

focused on the middle

2007-11-19T01:57:00.000-08:00

my mind works like a camera lens.
it has a decent depth of field.
However, the tasks clearly in focus
(in my mind)
tend to result in greater successes.

a fleeting thought before sleep.

an idea

2007-11-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

We live in a technology infused want-it-now society. Existing under the assumption that this web based instant world we have created is good for us. People expect everything to be instantaneous, easy to understand and abundantly available. Silence and taking on one task at a time seems to terrify the youth of this generation, myself included. We have forgotten how to play and create, even how to truly appreciate.
Our visual and auditory systems are so over stimulated that if we are not hooked within seconds we move on. This applies to music, art, food, relationships and so and so forth. A life of serious contemplation and enjoyment seems to be a thing of a past. I have lost focus. I want to attempt to rewire my contemporary multitasking mind. I am going to focus in one idea that I would normally let slip past.
I want to take a moment to appreciate the fun little visual experiences that can only be found after the sun sets. The shadows and blurred lights that surround us as we travel to-and-fro at night intrigued my new detail oriented perspective. About the lights and shadows that swim past our peripheral vision. This project is about folly and slowing down. It is about appreciation of what the night has to offer.

tired days followed by tireless nights

2007-11-06T18:02:00.000-08:00

when time just won't add up
and the hours slip past
the mind plays tricks
adjectives are lost
and descriptors hide in shadows

for a class

2007-11-04T17:48:00.001-08:00

i miss that hour of sun light was taken away quickly today.

because it tasted good in tahoe.

2007-11-01T16:15:00.001-07:00

when it was warmer

2007-10-31T16:41:00.000-07:00

i liked old buildings.
i also liked the grass.
i lied there for quite some time.
a 10 year old asked for the time.
i told him.
he went on his way.

when chewed gum is more then just chewed gum

2007-10-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

pretend you are not yourself already.

2007-10-31T10:53:00.000-07:00

Happy halloween. I refuse to capitalize the "h". The "h" does not deserve that little bit of effort of my pinkie holding down the shift key. It really does not. This is a six month old self portrait I made rather quickly. I came across it in my Photobucket account. Nothing terriblly exciting, but I am at the library. With a limited selection.
I always really like the red bricks. They were in the courtyard of my great friend Abigail's place.

i thought about it, so i did it.

2007-10-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

it makes me giggle a bit.
maybe someone else will get a laugh out of it.

a cloudless abyss of blue

2007-10-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

gray will soon eat my beloved sun
she'll only make special appearances this winter
and they'll be far and in between
so this crisp day of soul piercing blueness is taunting
i know what lies just around the corner
the earth is tilting further away from her
she doesn't stay out as late as she used to

soon the government will force her to go to bed an hour earlier.

time is slippery

2007-10-24T22:57:00.000-07:00

I find it odd how time can feel like sandpaper one day and then, suddenly, like that yellow slip and slide I played with as a child. It's a funny one.
Kurt Vonnegut died earlier this year. In his book on what happened in Dresden he tells a tale of a man who describes an alien race that views the world in four dimensions. This somehow leads to the ability to see a personal history as a whole entity. One can pop in and out of any moment at any time? This is a curious way to deal with the concept of death. And I liked the sound of it.
It doesn't really fit here, it just occurred to me.
Time is a funny one.
So it goes.

all i can do is procrastinate

2007-10-14T23:19:00.000-07:00

i should be writing a paper. not a blog entry.
i was back on that roof with some friends last night.
i am not a fan of how the nikon d40 handles a lack of light.
it works, but not on the level i'd like.

a positive habit (for a change)

2007-10-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

I want to start using this blog for a productive purpose.
Earlier tonight I checked out a Nikon D40 from the photo lab here on campus. I decided that I would climb on top of the Mechanical Engineering building and take pictures as I was walking out of the lab. The classically UD image on the left was just one of 133 pictures I took up there.
As walking home I was toying with the idea of creating a diptych out of this image. I would photoshop my hand giving the middle finger. I don't dislike UD, the concept just struck me as funny.
Who is Tilla Tequilla? I am confused as I skim past MTV. She seems like my buddy hoffman's type. I'll need to ask him about her.

shadows in shadows in shadows.

2007-10-07T22:04:00.000-07:00

Focus, shadows and blurry lights are part of my visual addiction these days. I accidentally made a black and white image like these 4 years ago. On some level, this is an homage to that image that changed everything.

the sky

2007-10-01T20:11:00.000-07:00

The blue sky has been very stimulating lately. Objects floating in the sky.

sort of untitled

2006-09-22T02:11:00.000-07:00

it took a two and half mile bike ride at four am
with a fantastic soundtrack
but happiness is on the horizon
i saw through the dark cloud that has been my reality
the good life is out there
can't wait.

2006-09-04T00:44:00.000-07:00

a new name.