Justin Johnson photography

Just a human with a film camera sharing the world through my eyes.

02/04/2022

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Mortality.
It’s something in western culture we have been taught to fear.
From anti-aging cremes, plastic surgery, and filters to hide wrinkles.
In eastern culture mortality is simply apart of our experience as a human.
Nothing more and nothing less.
I choose to align with the latter thinking.
You don’t have much time to worry about the adventure ending if you’re focused on the adventure.
Rededicating myself to living life like an adventure.
As it should be.

19/02/2022

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Faces Part 3
I love smiles.
They’re contagious and can completely change your day.
They can also represent something beautiful.
See, we do not know the past behind the smile.
The storms that have been weathered.
The battles that have been won.
The pain.
All that has happened leading up to this unspoken moment, a magnitude of events some may be unable to comprehend.
Yet, here we are in this beautiful moment together.
In this moment none of that exists.
In this moment it is pure love.
That raw energy.
Of a smile.

06/02/2022

Faces - Part Two
Meet Bishal and Vikho.
Cousins that span two countries, Vikho from Nagaland, India and Bishal from Pokhara, Nepal.
These two are my brothers no matter the time it’s been since I’ve seen them.
It all started when I was looking for a smoke shop near lakeside Pokhara and has turned into some of the best memories I have from traveling.
I know the world is crazy right now but I hope we can drink raksi and smoke lakeside as the sun sets on what I’m sure was a beautiful day once again ❤️

29/01/2022

Faces-Part One
While a majority of the faces you will see going forward will be of travelers and locals from around the world, I wanted to start off with family.
Up until about 4 years ago my family consisted of a handful of people.
Today, my cup runneth over.
So many that I have yet to meet all of them.
They’ve given me a home and a safe place.
A safe place to f**k up.
To learn and grow from those f**k ups.
A place where I can be me, authentically me and never feel judged.
A place, where for once, I find it hard to leave.

22/01/2022

You know
the moment you meet someone
who has gone through
such a beautiful disaster
the fires of life
nipping at their heels
a smile on their face
as they trudge forward
knowing nothing can
destroy them
that you too
can survive this

11/11/2021

Blast from the past from my deployment to Iraq in 08. Sitting here at 31 looking back at turning 18 in Kuwait and 19 in Iraq and the main thing that comes to mind is how many soldiers we have lost to su***de.
22 Veterans per day by government statistics.
That’s well over 175,000.
Today, don’t just blindly thank a veteran or give your support for our troops.
Make the connection that you can support the troops and be against war.
Do I think we did a horrible job of handling the pull out of Afghanistan and believe we should have slowly pulled out? Absolutely.
Did we need to be there? Fighting forces we armed in the 80’s? F**k no.
War is something that is meticulously planned and the blood of our young soldiers is used as payment.
So, thank a veteran today but, anytime in the future you see legislature being passed that is pro war write your congressman or woman.
Speak out and let them know you value the life’s of our troops.
You won’t see their sons and daughters going to war, so why should yours?

06/08/2021

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Pushing past the many false summits to reach the Thorong La Pass.
Sitting at 5,416m (17,769ft) there is 50% oxygen.
Each step feeling like I’ve sprinted up the side of the mountain.
May I forever push myself, if not for anything other than to see what I am capable of mentally and physically.

04/08/2021

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i am not fully healed
i am not fully wise
i am still on my way
what matters is that
i am still moving forward
-yung pueblo
As I grow
As I learn
The more I want clarity
Clarity within
I want to know me for me
The good, the bad
And the ugly
And love every bit of me
To do this I must have a clear mind which I haven’t had for any length of time in the past decade
Today starts day one of sobriety

01/08/2021

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I may not know where I’m going but,
I’m damn excited about the journey to get there.

31/07/2021

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I have this immense love and compassion within.
For those who can’t speak for themselves.
The ones society has forgotten about.
The ones holding it all in, just so that others perceive them as having it all together.
With such abundance I wondered why I was so hard on myself.
Unable to forgive and always highlighting my mistakes and flaws.
I love, love.
And I’m learning to love myself.

25/07/2021

I know that as a man there’s certain things I won’t be able to fully relate to or understand when it comes to experiences as a woman.
One of those is the feeling of empowerment of ones body, but, specifically not feeling like you have that power. Being able to feel sexy but not be sexualized.
It’s just not something I have gone through.
I loved this shoot because of the conversations before hand.
Real and raw talks that opened my eyes to a lot of things.
The life experiences that had created this fear to express ones sexuality for fear of being sexualized.
This body we have is a vessel, our vessel, and we should feel no fear in using it to express who and how we are.

21/07/2021

I don’t know about you but, I used to spend far too much time concerning myself with how I thought others perceived me.
One perk of the overactive imagination is acting out interactions or conjuring up thoughts of what other thought of me.
It’s a beautiful thing not to care about that anymore.
It’s so much easier just being me, accepting me and all the oddities, and just loving myself.
The only perception you should care about is your own.
The only person you should compare yourself with is yesterday’s you.