East Jesus

Howdy, East Jesus, Niland, California, Jan. 2020

In January of 2020, my friends and I took a day trip to Niland, California, to visit an art community called East Jesus. East Jesus is about a 2.5-hour drive from San Diego, California, and it’s located literally in the middle of nowhere, hence the name “East Jesus.” It’s apart of a community called Slab City, also known as “The Last Free Place on Earth.” According to Eastjesus.org, it serves as a “refuge to artists, musicians, survivalists, writers, scientists, laymen, and other wandering geniuses.” It was established in 2007 by a man named Charles Stephen Russel, who worked alongside Leonard Knight, known for Salvation Mountain, located just down the road from East Jesus.

Honestly, anything I write won’t do the pictures justice. It’s a visual playground for artists like myself who like to go out and make art. I could’ve spent hours there just shooting. I was amazed at the simple things that many would consider trash turned into art. When visiting, I’d recommend a great music playlist, water, snacks, and good company for the ride. We also visited Salvation Mountain, which I will be posting about in my next blog.

For this shoot, I used my Canon T7i with 24mm and 10-18mm lenses. I went with black and white due to the time of day we arrived. The non-shooters I was traveling with didn’t consider the importance of time of day, and it’s influence on highlights and shadows that I didn’t want to spend hours in Photoshop trying to correct. The black and white edit to me simplified everything and took away the distractions.