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

Hi James, we’d love to hear more about your end-goal, professionally.
Picture a late 80’s RV sitting in the middle of the desert somewhere in California. Outside the RV there are two beat up chairs, and a fire pit. I’m sitting in one chair, my wife in the other. I lit up a cigarette, put on ‘Southern Nights’ by Glenn Campbell, watch the sunset, and go to bed. If my professional career takes me there, I won.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Music is fucking primal. 7 million years ago, before concert venues, dive bars, and DIY-spots, humans danced and sang in caves, jungles, and deserts with the same heart that people dance and sing with today. After nearly a decade of photographing live music and everything around it I’d be lying if I said I was even close to being burnt out. Every night spent downtown at some warehouse venue, every cigarette shared with a stranger in an alley, every conversation with good company, every smile in passing, everything I’ve experienced working in the music industry means so much to me. Photographing the intimate, special moments that make up the absolute best of the human condition is something I never take for granted and if there’s one thing I’ve learned throughout my career as a photographer it’s how to be a damn human – and I am forever grateful.

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?
I’m in SoCal so first things first, we’re putting $20 in the 79′ El Camino, grabbing a pack of Marlboro Reds, a couple energy drinks, and we’re doing 90 all the way to downtown LA where we will pull up to a nearly-destroyed warehouse in an area of the city that looks like a warzone. Inside that warehouse, you will see the best live show of your life, get sweaty, get drunk, get punched in the face, and finally know what it’s like to be alive. When the show ends, we’ll call for a cab home cause the el co isn’t going to start – I just know it.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have to shout out my boys – one is named Caleb and lives in Texas, one is named Caleb and lives in Alaska. Classic.

Website: jamesafterdeath.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deathbyjames/?hl=en

Youtube: https://www.jamesafterdeath.com/

Image Credits
All photos by James Alan Duran

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