Linas Justice is a 23-year-old up-and-comer, currently living in London, England. His weapons of choice are a camera, pack of smokes (reds or blues depending on his financial situation) and a good stiff drink or two. Linas recently took the time to answer some questions on photography, inspiration, dinner parties and the importance of whiskey.
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Name: Linas. Linas Justice.
Age: 23
Hometown: Vilnius, Lithuania
Current Location: London, UK
D&D: What music have you been listening to these days?
LJ: Just a few days ago I got tired of all the music I had on my walkman and deleted everything. Starting over now – Matias Aguayo with Matthew Dear, followed by Metronomy and When Saints Go Machine (one of their songs – “Parix” – was a soundtrack for my last photo shoot) and then topped up with Gogol Bordello with Tom Waits and Angola Prisons Spiritual Blues.
D&D: What’s better: Red or Blue?
LJ: I go for blue ones, but if I’m bankrupt I smoke Reds as they got more bang for a buck. Same thing in other situations I guess.
D&D: What kind of photography equipment do you typically use?
LJ: I typically shoot digital for my main projects, but then when it comes to day-to-day/party/night-out shots I go for autofocus compact film cameras. In the end I’m not really getting all that techbuzz, I just need tools that work in the dark.
That’s what she said!
D&D: If you had to choose one lens to use for the rest of your life, what would it be?
LJ: I was writing and deleting, picking and crossing. But no, I don’t know. I refuse to play this game!
D&D: Did you go to school for photography?
LJ: Yes. In a way. It all really started with a photography school. Then it was internet – from articles to forums, from forums to experiments, from experiments to actual shoots, to collaborations, to assisting. And then I decided to quit university and go to London to actually study photography. But the truth is – there is no need for that. Just go and shoot, think, create and make it happen.
D&D: I’ve noticed a lot of your work has a sort of dark or louche feel to it. Do you actively try to maintain a certain style?
LJ: Louche /lo͞oSH/ adjective: - Disreputable or sordid in a rakish or appealing way. What a definition! I really like the word sordid. But no. I don’t try to maintain a certain style. I believe my mind just works that way – it is all clutter and chaos in there, but when it comes to shooting, everything starts with an idea; with a story. And that story usually has a taste of social critique in it. That way it can’t be all lovely jubbly. I don’t really dig photography solely for the purpose of photography and/or beauty. But mind that all this darkness is real darkness, not anyway magical – it is loneliness in suburbs, broken hearts, violence in childhood, empty gazes and slithering of lost souls in the night.
D&D: WOW! That’s pretty deep. Many athletes have a pre-game ritual that they go through to get mentally prepared for a game. Do you have any rituals that you use to get in the zone for a shoot?
LJ: I wouldn’t like to say it but I guess it’s alcohol for me. For me and everyone working around. Just some whisky and coke, you know, just to get things going, ease people up and… warm the hearts!
D&D: About your website…
LJ: Haha, yes, linasjustice.com - in a way there’s none. Got my work scattered all around internet, from Flickr, to Facebook, to Behance network. And my website is just text, links and contacts, nothing else. It seems that normal people like it, but photographers and other creatives are giving me hard time for it.
D&D: What’s the biggest barrier to inspiration?
LJ: For me it is mindless repetitive physical work. That is the killer. You don’t have to look far away – even the endless partying leaves me empty, with no ideas or no wish to get up and create. By the way, I usually store treasures of photography and graphics that inspire me, ideas I like and sometimes music I enjoy is hiding on my tumblr.
D&D: Do you have an vices you care to share with us?
LF: Laziness. Fuck it, this one is bringing all the shit in. BUT, at the same time I want to try everything – from chemicals to experiences. That gets me in trouble, from time to time.
D&D: Who are the top 5 people, dead or alive, that you would invite to a dinner party?
Tyler Durden
David Lynch
Stephen King
That Girl On The Beach from a nude poster from my childhood
aaaaaaaaaaand
Hunter S. Thompson
Louche stuff, indeed.
D&D: What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
LJ: “Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work.” Chuck Close said that. No, I never met him and he never gave me this advice. But that’s just between me and you.
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Check out and follow Linas on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr
