I considered just a junkyard volume since I have so many shots of abandoned vehicles. The light proved to shine perfectly on these trucks. Patina at its finest. The elaborate details of deterioration give the center truck its own beauty; standing out like a prom queen flanked by her own court.
The bright green moss growing on the truck still amazes me. It’s almost lifelike in its decay. Sometimes junkyard shots prove more difficult than they appear when cars are stranded side by side. Year unknown.
Excerpt from Ghostland America.
…
“James Calemine captures the heart of a haunting, vanishing America that will never really go away in the stories and photographs of Ghostland America.”
–Alan Paul, Author-New York Times bestseller
“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
“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.
“From no-tell motels to Flannery O’Connor’s farm… 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
“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 & Arranger of Strangers)
“James Calemine gets that culture can be found in a roadside stand just as much as in a big city museum. Ghostland 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.“
-– Stephanie Stuckey, CEO of Stuckey’s