Our Lord of San Felipe

This week I ask some questions to my friend Justin Jernigan about the stories within his photos and how these reflect his lifestyle. Justin currently lives around and within the Los Angeles region, adhering to “bike life”, a lifestyle that is centered around constant movement and uprooting, and which involves a complex system of values and sense of community. Thanks Justin!

MO: If your photos tell a story, it seems one of the themes would be constant change and movement. Do you think this is a result of your own incessant need to travel, or is there something deeper, rooted within our generation that calls for this constant movement?

JJ: My freshman year of high school they had me read “The Sun Also Rises.” Hemingway, chasing women and wine across the railways of southern France and Catalonia, was the first real vagabond I came to love, and as a thirteen year old, that book did more to shape the next ten years of my life than any other person or thing. As a result, I have cultivated a fairly far reaching wanderlust for many years now. Although I agree that my own need to travel is greater than the average person’s, I do feel that this desire for movement is more pronounced in our generation than in those past.

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For a long time I struggled with the concept of being content. I think it’s a problem endemic not only to our generation, but to society as a whole, and in my opinion rampant consumerism continues to play a large part in feeding this dystopia. Advertising and marketing theory is designed to dictate your tastes, plant the seed of desire, make you want something you don’t need. We are constantly told we need more, newer, better things. Where you live, where you work, who you love, what you consume- these are all things you have ability to change (and marketing professionals would love for you to spend money changing.) Whether or not one should exercise that power is something many people struggle with – the choice; the idea that there’s someone better out there for you, a better neighborhood or city to live in, a higher paying job, etc. This breeds jealousy, restlessness and indecision. Some people, myself included choose to explore these possibilities not at the mall, but on the road.

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As a generation we idolize those on the fringe, on the move – the obvious and endearing Kerouac, burning bright across the interstate highway system, or contemporary visionaries such as David Choe hopping trains with a can of spray-paint in hand or Swoon sailing the seven seas in an armada of handmade boats. These people represent the new American dream- the ability to separate, strike out in all directions, redraw the map, form unique societies in which to be accepted and wake up every day in a new place, as a new person. To me, an artist’s trek across the country or planet is not only an endless source of inspiration, but increasingly a necessity, and in some aspects, a rite of passage. How much can you know about yourself, your work, or the world if you never leave your comfort zone? Our generation is one of the most over-medicated, over-stimulated, over-entitled and over-nurtured that has ever walked the planet, is it any wonder than that our heros are homeless and we seek comfort in the unknown? In order to grow – physically, mentally, artistically and spiritually – you need to break free of your homogenized habitat. Get lost, get hurt, get mugged, go for broke – maybe in the process you will learn what I did; that there is no perfect place for you to live, there is no perfect lover or career, accept the dynamic nature of life – that change is constant – and you can be happy anywhere you choose.

Aquadcutridazz

Joelle

MO: Paying attention to some of your portraits, I feel like you’re capturing two extremes. On the one hand, you’ve captured portraits of friends in these climatic moments, like in “joelle”, “matteenmatteenacidqueen”, “imogenonfire”, and on the other hand, there are equally climatic moments like in “shsitpitfloor”, “westsidemosey”, and “hailb-rad” that come from an opposite extreme, chaotic and disorderly. Do you think these two extremes are part of the same ideal? Would you say they represent your current lifestyle?

JJ: My life on the western edge of America has been characterized by moments of paralyzing beauty and gut wrenching discord. Or maybe gut wrenching beauty and paralyzing discord. (Think sunrise in a redwood forest vs 2500 cyclists screaming through Hollywood as an LAPD helicopter spotlight engulfs the street.) Both extremes are part of what is commonly refereed to as ‘bike life’ – a lifestyle that revolves around your bicycle and bike events around the world. I’ve had more life changing, fun overloading, indescribable, jaw dropping experiences in the last two years of my life than all twenty-four years combined. These experiences, good and bad, have yielded deep bonds between myself and the friends I share them with and through my photography I try to document the love that accompanies that chaos.

Funderstorm Phoenix

Unfortunately like any lifestyle that straddles the extremes, you cant have the sweet with out the sour. People have been stabbed and shot on group rides in Los Angeles, people are routinely hit by cars, have their bikes stolen or are unjustly harassed by the LAPD. I ride about 15 miles a day, and every day I encounter ignorant motorists and life threatening situations. Addiction, homelessness, unemployment, lack of health insurance – these are all problems that sadly also characterize bike life. Thankfully the bicycle community in LA, with Midnight Ridazz as the white hot center, is home to some of the most open, helpful, knowledgeable and altruistic people I have ever met. We don’t just ride together, we fix each others bikes, find jobs, homes, parts and equipment for one another, we feed each each other, we mobilize for activism(or civil disobedience) together. The fact that death is so tangible only makes the air taste that much sweeter when you come out the other side – of a jail cell in west Texas or a riverbank in Portland.

Shsitpit Floor

MO: As an ex-east coaster, how has your experience in LA been in comparison with the east? Has it lived up to your expectations? myths?

JJ: When I first got to Los Angeles I found myself constantly having to check my New York attitude. The differences between the coasts is definitely tangible. I had to force myself to move slower and expect things later rather than sooner. The hippie love vibe is strong in LA, especially on the west side, as is the booming medicinal marijuana industry, which boasts more dispensaries than Starbucks. The biggest contrast however has been in bicycle culture. In New York people ride their bikes to and from work and social functions and that’s about it. (The NYPD harassed Critical Mass to near death following the 2004 Republican National Convention.) Times Up organizes regular group rides, but they’re nothing like whats happening in LA, where rides routinely draw hundreds of cyclists and the atmosphere is more of a party than a leisurely tour.

Vandrew Sleepers

Most people, not only on the east coast, but across the country, talk shit about LA and its car-centric, smog filled streets. As the second most populated city in America, Los Angeles is bursting at the seems with art, culture and identity and I felt that I owed it to myself to experience such an influential and magical city after spending my whole life in the suburbs of NY/NJ. As a car-less citizen, I love rail based mass transit and do grow frustrated with the lack of an extensive subway system like New York’s, but the subway here does work well, it just doesn’t go to the west side… yet. As a result I spend so much more time at street level, capturing things that I might have missed had I been underground or car-bound.

Westside Mosey

The weather here fully lives up to my expectations. I don’t think it ever got below 40 degrees in the daytime here this winter and there was maybe only two or three months where I had to wear a few extra layers at night to keep warm. The sun is always shining, the temperature always calls for a t-shirt y la comida mexicana es increible.

Matteenmatteen Acidqueen

Slab City Mosey

MO: Do you think that your photos have reflected this change?

JJ: Definitely. New York, especially Manhattan, seems like Disneyland on Reaganomics to me. There’s plenty of bars, museums, music and galleries but no adventure, no thrill. LA is so large that if you ever get bored exploring its endless grid and neighborhoods, its the perfect jumping off point to explore other places; the Mexican border is 130 miles to the south, eclectic cities like San Francisco, Santa Cruz and San Diego are close by, as is the entire south western desert zone. California is overflowing with mountains, beaches, wildlife and plant life unlike anywhere else in the country. This abundance of nature and territory has yielded countless journeys across state lines and city limits and has undeniably shaped the context within which I shoot. I think the majority of my most beloved shots have come from my time spent riding my bike through foreign streets with good friends and no knowledge of whats over the horizon. Also, magic hour is no joke out here – the hour or two leading up to sunset is just beautiful – the entire city is coated in this golden yellow gloss that injects you with so much vitamin D you cant help but stop, smile and appreciate life on this weird little planet.

Posted by: matt o. under Art, Show and Tell