1. What’s a creative challenge you’ve been dealing with lately?
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about letting my work “cook”. Not posting things or printing them right away. Digital photography makes us feel as if we need to do something with them immediately after creating them. But letting time pass and revisiting can actually bring a unique perspective or opinion on it, everything from how it should be edited, cropped, or even if it’s worth considering at all.
There’s also experiential tension I’ve been dealing with. Most of my photography coincides with travel to new places, and I don’t want the act of photographing to become something that pulls me out of being present in a place. At the same time, I still want to make work that feels intentional and shaped and that I can be proud of. Holding those two desires together can be difficult, especially in fast-moving environments like streets.
What’s helped is allowing more space between shooting and evaluating. Instead of judging images immediately, I try to let them sit and breathe a little. I’d review the SD card weeks, sometimes months later. For film, it’s been easy for me to develop a roll a whole year later. That distance often reveals whether I was actually seeing something new, or just repeating something familiar.
2. What’s your relationship to gear?
My relationship with gear sits somewhere between wanting to protect stability and wanting to go outside my comfort zone. I believe in trying new things when there’s genuine interest, financial room, or a sense that you’ve outgrown your current setup. It can be healthy to explore tools that stretch the way you see. Sometimes a different camera (like film, if you’re used to digital) can shift attention in subtle ways that are hard to replicate otherwise.
At the same time, I’ve learned that comfort and consistency matters more than novelty. If a setup lets me take the photos I want without thinking about it too much, I tend to value that more than chasing gear improvements or trying to be fluent in film photography. The less friction there is between seeing something and capturing it, the more present I can stay in the moment.
Because I also make YouTube videos, a really good hybrid camera is important to me. I have two Sony A7C ii’s and I always have a 35mm on one of them, and the other either has 28mm or 17mm for video or wider street shots. If either of them broke, I’d buy another again in a heartbeat.
Personally I’ve been putting film photography on hold because the friction of it has me feeling a bit disillusioned. Still, I proudly display my Canonet QL17 and Yashica-A on my shelf as a reminder to return to it when I’m ready.
3. Do you have any projects in progress that you'd like to discuss?
One of my ongoing projects is my YouTube channel, The Justine Files. It’s a space where I explore photography through human connection rather than just technique or output. A lot of street photography conversations naturally focus on the mechanics of the craft, like timing, composition, or handling difficult interactions in public spaces.
What I’ve been drawn to instead is what happens around the photography itself. The relationships that form between photographers, the way people support each other, and how creative practice can become a bridge into deeper social connection. Especially as many people navigate loneliness or more fragmented adult friendships, I think there’s something meaningful in that layer of the work that often goes unspoken.
In the comments and conversations that come out of it, I’ve noticed people opening up about neurodivergence, friendship circles, and how we slow down enough to actually see each other’s work. That part has become just as important as the videos themselves. It feels less like a channel about photography alone, and more like a record of how people use photography to stay connected to each other.
