The creative process of Justin Mitchell, an analog photographer from South Africa, is fuelled by a self-proclaimed “permanency fetish.”
The repeating theme of vibrant colors, neons, skateboards, video consoles, trinkets, and sunbathed streets shot on film conveys melancholic youthfulness. He captures the mundane and the accidental—moments that do not mean much at face value but, once put in the context of a life experience, can be profound.
For instance, a group of objects on a table—a carnival mask, a pair of shoes with marks on the toes, a brush, an exercise equipment, and a plant—is simply clutter to an outsider viewer. Yet, for the one who decides to preserve this particular sliver of reality, it might be a time spent with rarely seen friends, remnants of a party that changed their life, or mementos of a person gone.
Mitchell’s photos are not about replication. Searching for curated portrait sessions in his portfolio would be in vain. He is all about capturing and preserving glimpses of everyday life, treating the shutter as if it were his own eyelids—immortalizing images caught between blinks so they can be recalled and cherished exactly as they were. As the artist puts it himself, “Photography is all about remembering.”
Mitchell appears to be what we would refer to as a psychedelic wanderer—a hippie. His art touches on elements of the avant-garde with the looseness and freedom of a tumbleweed, diving into philosophical monologues and unanswered questions. The disorder is only apparent; the message remains clear, deeply encapsulated under sweat, laundry, and cigarette butts.
Read our “Camouflage” issue in full
RAWGUE.’s 4th issue delved into the grey, moody, and cold atmosphere of winter. Yet it did not sink into the depths of madness or depression. Instead, it embraced this season of hibernation, allowing 31 artists from all over the world to present their timid work beneath a veil of quiet beauty.
We’re a team of writers using our craft to spotlight art in its most honest form. RAWGUE. started as a bi-monthly editorial experiment where each issue’s theme is dictated by the submitted work, thus removing editorial bias from the equation and preserving a more raw approach. We focus on all forms of poetry: written, photographed, painted, drawn, and filmed.
