Ghostland America
$40.00
July 26, 2022. Ghostland America is officially out NOW...!
"James Calemine's fifth book, Ghostland America, is a stunning collection of his color photographs, some never before seen. These photographs and the evocative narratives that accompany them take the reader on a journey that transcends modern times. Travel along the South's old highways, from rustic coast and swamps, through the rural glory of the plains, to the fallen majesty of the Appalachians. The images and words deliver an earthbound, joyful, sometimes desolate and thought-provoking experience."
"There are some people who preserve history by writing about it. There are some people who preserve historical places and things by photographing them before they disappear forever. James Calemine does both with his unique flavor of writing and knowledge based on his love of various musical styles and his love of The South.
"Anybody with a good camera can take a technically good photo. But only a great photographer can capture the right angle and the right natural lighting to create a special mood that evokes emotional feelings and memories of someone seeing and studying that photo. Calemine’s fifth book, Ghostland America, contains 100 photographs that he has selected from thousands and thousands taken over several decades in several Southern states.
"There are no people photos. Just deteriorated road signs, abandoned theaters and motels, rusting vehicles, weathered old churches and beautiful scenes created by nature that tell their own stories of how their former users once lived and loved. It’s more than a picture book just to be displayed on a coffee table. It’s a book to be savored page by page with a cup of coffee." --DON "RAMBLIN" RHODES, author, Mysteries & Legends of Georgia; Safe at Home: Ty Cobb; Say It Loud, My Memories of James Brown, Soul Brother No. 1, etc.
"I’ve known James Calemine for what seems like a hundred years… readin his writin & listenin to the praises he laid on others. Hell, I’ve even been in one or two of his published efforts--books that make ya think & wonder if I should know that fella or gal.
"I have always admired his photography whenever he would post one on social media or someplace else. But this collection of his visual work, compiled and explained, is really very, very cool. Taken in total, rather than piecemeal, this compilation of his work is much more powerful when taken together as a whole.
"James Calemine is a southern man and this is the South that he sees…often gone but never forgotten. I personally think this is his best work yet." --Kirk West Photographer, Les Brers: Kirk West's Photographic Journey With The Brothers; The Blues In Black & White
"From no-tell motels to Flannery O'Connor's farm, my friend James Calemine will take you along for an amazing ride in Ghostland America. It's as much a tribute to the soul of the South as it is to the freedom of the road. Turn off your phone and enjoy the scenery."
--Brian Brown Photographer/Founder of Vanishing Georgia
"James Calemine is a born storyteller. Ghostland America is a lovely chronicle of a bygone era withered in time but somehow alive in every photograph. The landscapes may seem still in these pictures but they are in constant motion through the eye of the author. This is a beautiful book that I highly recommend." - Brit Whittle, Actor
"Every photographer can relate to rushing down the freeway seeing things you wish you had time to stop and shoot, meaning to note where you saw that weird sign or that crumbling building so you can go back, but you've got to get the kids to school or get to a job -- and years pass by, always rushing somewhere. You never get the chance to go back, or you finally get the time, but you can't remember where or what it was that you wanted to shoot. Calemine takes time to slow down and take these photographs-- and his stories give us a unique take on each place where he stopped, along with some truly interesting roadside history."
--Jason Thrasher, Photographer/Athens Potluck
Stellar Review for Ghostland America...
"James Calemine gets it. He gets that culture can be found in a roadside stand just as much as in a big city museum. Ghostland in America celebrates the beauty of ghost motels that are scrapbook memories of vacations long past, the lost gourd stands and rusting skeletons of abandoned cars. For all you roadies out there full of wanderlust, this is the book for you, beckoning you to explore places like Woodbine, Eatonton and Wrens and hopefully discover some of your own hidden roadside treasures."
--Stephanie Stuckey, CEO of Stuckey's
"Beautiful cool morning down in Mississippi today and checking out James Calemine's awesome photos in his new book 'Ghostland America.' Beautiful, haunting and gritty and right down my alley. Great inspiration for all southern writers!"
--Ace Atkins, New York Times Bestselling Author
"James has a cool way of looking at things..."
--Marc Ford, The Black Crowes, Ben Harper, Neptune Blues Club
September 16, 2022: Insightful and Soulful write up of Ghostland America in the latest installment of Reckon Review:
http://reckonreview.com/you-come-too/
September 17, 2022: Nice review of Ghostland America in the Weekend Edition of the Valdosta Daily Times:
"James Calemine has a way with words and pictures--his knowledge of what lies behind the music, the building, the scene is like reading a documentary film. He's a writer who reminds me of the days when Jack Kerouac and Denis Johnson entertained my afternoons. Telling the stories that created the story, the masons, the mechanics, the storms, the dichotomous point of view: subjective objects and objective subjects. It all makes sense when James Calemine translates the American stories for his readers."
--Sonny Marler, Filmmaker "The Tinker"
The Road To Hell
$20.00
The Road To Hell, was published on June 22, 2020. These gritty stories deal with mass shootings, hurricanes, social media addiction, power grids, corruption, gambling, a criminal liar, toxic water, graveyard spirits, UFOs in the Okefenokee Swamp, the coronavirus and other eerie realities of life in modern America.
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