Meet Justin Guerra | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Justin Guerra and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Justin, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I was born in raised in a small town in northern New Jersey. I spent a lot of my early life sandwiched between the major cities of New York and Philadelphia. Hearing about places that didn’t look like the suburbs seemed entirely foreign to me but the more I read about them the more I wanted to seek them out. After college I joined the United States Peace Corps and served in a remote area of Eastern Mongolia. The experience was eye opening and life changing to say the least. I brought with me a little digital point and shoot to record my time there but seldom used it. After my service finished a looked back at the few photos I had and kicked myself for not taking more. I returned with a pretty bad travel bug and had a hard time readjusting to life in the US. I got a job in the experiential education field and managed travel programs for students abroad in SE Asia, North Africa and Central Asia. Determined not to make the same mistake as I did in the Peace Corps I bought myself a proper camera, justifying that if I had something bigger and more expensive that I lugged around the world I would be forced to use it. I immediately fell in love with documentary, landscape and travel photography as a means of story telling and processing what I learned abroad. I begrudgingly returned to the US and on a whim left my native East Coast and drove out to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado with camera in tow. I fell in love with the West instantly and haven’t left since.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve have always been careful to keep my passion of photography in its own space. Today it is so easy to become burnt out and overwhelmed in pursuit of what you love. I’m fortunate to have a good job where I can keep my love for photography separate and let my skills and style grow at their own pace rather than having to force it for the sake of making ends meet. It is and has always been a way for me to process what I am seeing out in the world, a way to appreciate and tell my own stories as well as learn from the places I visit, the cultures I interact with and the people I meet. Breaking free of the habits and chains of social media was a big step towards taking myself seriously and grasping onto the therapeutic aspect photography. As I have gradually taken it more and more seriously and have monetized my photography through gigs, prints and a website I try not to lose sight of the passionate part of photography as a whole. I still have so much to learn and one of the things I love about art is that it is ever evolving and changing with no end game.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Plan your visit around your favorite Red Rocks performance. Walks and hangs in Cheesman Park with a stop at the Botanical Garden. Breakfast at Rosenbergs Bagels, lunch at Denver Biscuit Company, cocktails at Green Russel and dinner at Linger. Beers at Cerebral Brewing Co. or Jagged Mountain or go all in with a brewery walk and hit the streets around RiNo.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
It would be impossible to credit any success I’ve ever had in life without acknowledging and crediting the love and support of my parents. Through all of my travels, hardships, and changes that I knew it was always hard for them to relate to they never ceased to encourage and support all I’ve done, through good times and bad.

Website: https://justinguerraphotography.com/

Instagram: @_justin.guerra

Other: Vero: @justinguerra