Coal City, IL

We slowly inch towards the back of the plane and watch the people block up the aisle as they stow their carry-on bags. As we reach our seats the smell of urine infects our noses and we agree that we are not eating on this plane ride. As I watch the plane slowly fill up I try as hard as I can to breath through my mouth and look out the window at the busy runway. I'm on the way back to Miami from a trip to visit my family in the Northern Illinois/Indiana area which was a most fulfilling escape from the humid air and killing sun. The weather was impecable, and the family was even more of a joy to see. As my godfather would say, "All they do up there is drink and smoke." I figured, when in Rome...Our trip was mainly to celebrate my aunt's 50th birthday this weekend which consisted of Patron, Corona's, Cake, Bar-B-Q's, Bags, and hating. Sitting around the fire our talks consisted of stories of family and friends. Endless laughs at others expenses, especially Uncle Tim who was not around to defend himself because he's in Tennesse. Must've been a hundred plus stories of the guy. Hate Hate Hate. But listening to that fire burn that last night, it seemed to burn away all those stories slowly and release them as smoke into the dark sky. We stayed in a small town named Coal City about twenty minutes south of Joliet and I fell in love with the place. I asked my cousin to drive me around to a few places so I could attempt to capture the town. I shot mostly in panoramic style so as to reflect the romantic side of me in attempts to capture the "whole" picture. Also included were my visits to Lake Michigan and Downtown Chicago. All in all, I'm still dreaming of the place, but nothing can beat home, even if it's pouring all day and humid at night. Enjoy.
-justin

Chris (And His Favorite Tree In The Yard)

The Kid's Bedroom's

Jakob's Room (Justin And Chris' Over Summer)


Savannah's Room (Jakob and Savannah's Over Summer)


Chloe's Room (The Princess)

The House That We Built

It's been over ten years now that I helped my father build his house out in the middle of nowhere South Florida. It was a family effort and we worked on the house for almost nine months before we moved into it. Living down here for the past month and seeing the same walls and rooms change over the years as my brother and I departed to college. I have this one image here of the wall of pictures. My step-mom felt it were better if all the family pictures were put together on one wall than all over the house, leaving room on the wall for artwork from friends and family. So here is the first shot of this mini series of documentary photographs of the house that we built.
-justin

been mia for a bit. kinda busy with graduating, photographing events around the city and working on the farm. needless to say i haven't had much time to photograph for myself. i have had time to pull out the camera for about a minute and snap a few shots. the first few are from my good friend slava's 23rd birthday, and the other is hanging with the brother in his ride for a late night sesh after a fourteen hour day at the farm. be on the lookout, the monster is coming back after this month is out and the farmings been farmed.