Fight for $15 Protest and Arrests

A couple weeks ago, I was out photographing a Fight for $15 strike at the start of their National Day of Disruption, where workers from the Fight for $15 union, along with SEIU, protested across the country with groups being arrested in multiple cities, often for failure to disperse.

I was there photographing a subject's story. Things were a little slow on that part and once things escalated, I switched to the other story at hand as the person I was photographing stood still watching the police arrest protestors seated in the street.

My goal is always to inform, and as such, I tweeted and Instagrammed pictures as the event happened. As I was working on someone's story, I didn't actually pack my laptop on me, something I regretted after - might have been handy to send the photos off.

Nothing worse than photographs you like never seeing the light of day, so here's the story of the morning protest in Los Angeles:

@justnlstewart

November Protest at Los Angeles City Hall

November was a busy month, covering election related things. A lot of my work since moving here has been covering breaking news - with video. It's pretty uninteresting stuff and doesn't allow for much creative freedom. After having done a few of these videos, I've figured out what is wanted of me and feel more comfortable knowing what' needed, meaning that my coverage is more flexible.

I can take photographs too.

So, when the news is more interesting, like a protest, I'm also working on taking photographs. Usually multitasking is a quality depriving option; shooting a good video and making good photographs is a hard task. A protest is a little easier because it's a fairly predictable thing and unmoving. Sometimes something is going to be lit on fire or the crowd is going to start marching, but for the most part, it's a static thing. You can set up your video shot, take it, and then get almost the same shot in stills (except for moments where things are being torched - you gotta pick then). 

Anyways, this opportunity came up and I wanted to shoot some stills that allowed me more creative freedom than the video I was hired to shoot, so I made some on the side.

I was interested in the vendor out, finding work in the midst of a protest and seeing the opportunity to earn some money. I like playing with using my phone to shoot photos and video and thought I'd try to make a little video highlighting the vendor with my phone, just to experiment:

An Afternoon at the Venice Beach Skate Park

This past weekend, seeking some respite from my home office and laptop, I rode my bike down to Venice to photograph people at the skate park. There can be too much time spent inside and at a certain point, you're just ricocheting around the internet without accomplishing much. I needed fresh air and some pressureless, fun photography.

I've never actually photographed skateboarding before, which I find kind of funny. Two of my first three magazines I subscribed to as a kid were Snowboarder and Skateboarder magazine (the other was the free Lego magazine). I got them just to look at the pictures and dream of being a professional skateboarder and snowboarder myself, though I always faced a severe lack of concrete in Wyoming.

The park was full of boarders taking advantage of a nice day, but one in particular kept trying a big trick out of the pool. He was a fun kid with a lot of energy, and the concrete was pretty packed with spectators and boarders, so I found my opening and pretty much stayed there, playing with different ways to photograph the action. I tried not to concern myself with getting all the angles or doing anything that I'd usually push myself to do on an assignment. I was there to relax and have fun, and acting like that takes some of the fun out of it.

I came out of there with a couple pictures I liked, feeling refreshed by a relaxing excursion outside of the house to a place I hadn't been before.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

October Portraits for Leafly

I had the opportunity in October to take portraits for Leafly magazine and interview various public officials around the Los Angeles area who were supporting Proposition 64 to legalize recreational marijuana use.

It was an great opportunity that I was so grateful to have. Thanks to Patrick Fallon, a great photographer and awesome person, for passing my name along.

One of the best parts about this, besides being able to work on portraiture (something I consider a weakness), was being paid to travel around my new home out here in California and see places I'd yet to stumble across. So much of my passion for photojournalism rests with its ability to take you places you wouldn't otherwise be and forced interactions with people you may otherwise have never known. 

I was also under tight time constraints with each shoot, which upped the ante for me and was great growing experience. I was pretty pleased when I didn't fall flat on my face.

It was also one of my first actual journalism related pieces I've had published since moving here. Being able to interview the people I photographed on an interesting topic was another great opportunity that I loved. Reporting is cool and I wish I got to do more extended versions of it more often than just captioning photos.

Anyways, blah, blah, blah. Here's a couple frames from each of the shoots. Thanks for giving it my work a peek!

Political Debates: Snapchat and the loss of meaning

©Justin L. Stewart

What happens when the general public stops having faith in the political process?

Last night, thoughts like that bounced around in my head before, during, and after the first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Stumbling through social media, the oddly common discussion of drinking games for watching the debates lay strewn throughout my Facebook and Twitter feeds.

Posted in a Facebook comment.

A small sample of drinking games to apparently make debates worth watching.

I saw someone post a status of someone looking for a friend's place to watch the debate at (for the first time ever) with her son, not because she was interested in what either of the candidates would say, but because she was expecting it to be a trainwreck and thus, entertaining to watch. 

As the debate began, Snapchats with funny filters started popping up in my notifications on my cellphone and filling the Snapchat Stories section of my app. I got a couple chuckles in before becoming bored. Then I began to think about how I saw this happening all throughout the primary debates and how distracting of an action it was to take take one of these snaps during the debate. 

All these thoughts – the posts, the snaps, the memes, and everything else – started to merge in my head and weigh heavily on me. Was anyone actually watching the debate? Have we all become so jaded by politics and politicians' trained responses to questions that the political process has just become a dark joke that the everyman feels powerless in? Instead of focusing on what should be important discussions and debates surrounding our country's future, have we been relegated to make the best of what may feel like a powerless position by making drinking games and funny memes of politicians?

I don't know, but the thought is there. Along those lines, I made some snaps of my own last night for the purpose of making this post. I wanted people to think about why we're doing these things. Are they actually acts of frustration? Is this an action that makes the user feel more power, having made a person of power laughable through a photographic manipulation of their visage.

Here's a series of snaps I made last night with those thoughts in mind.

Debate Gallery - by Justin L. Stewart

Birthday Tripping to Rosarito, Mexico (Baja California)

Rosarito Trip - Images © Justin L. Stewart 

 Last month, I made a weekend trip down to Mexico with my girlfriend as a birthday present for her. Mexico is only a couple hours away (on a good traffic day) and neither of us had ever been before. We stayed at an AirBnB with Dmichael, a host who made us fresh salsa, guacamole, margaritas and amazing breakfasts with food grown in his garden. We also had a private beach below, which rarely saw any traffic but us (a far cry from LA's crowded sands).

One of the best parts of the trip was just being able to disconnect. Save for the internet at the house, we were without connection to the busy life back home and it felt good not to be absorbed by the internet and emails.

We also had amazing quesadillas, drowned in thick cheese. And gorgeous sunsets rivaling those we get here in LA.

Looking at this gallery now, it looks like I didn't even take a good picture of Chelsea. I promise I (probably) did, I just haven't developed the film yet. Still have a few frames to burn.

Here's a little bit of what that trip looked like. Thanks for lookin'.

The Betsy (Betty) Ross Portrait Series

The Betsy Ross Series (MA) - Images by Justin Stewart 

Here's the Betsy (Betty) Ross portrait series from Scituate, Massachusetts. I fell in love with a corner in a room of a house and I made people sit in that corner while I took colonial inspired portraits. Unfortunately, Betty Ross was remembered in my head as Betsy Ross, so that's what I kept chanting as I worked away (sorry Betty).

2016 is the year of the portrait for me, and this was a fun opportunity to work that idea. I was happy with what I came away with and had fun doing it. Wish I found more awesome corners like this one with a plethora of models at my disposal.

Here's to making more fun portraits like these.

Thanks for looking <3