Photographer Jim Lustenader is an Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of these images. From the project ‘Goin’ Up the Country’. To see Jim ‘s body of work, click on any photograph.

“I’m going up the country

Baby, don’t you wanna go?

I’m going up the country

Baby, don’t you wanna go?

I’m going to some place

Where I’ve never been before”

“I’m going, I’m going

Where the water tastes like wine…”

Performed at Woodstock in 1969, Canned Heat’s rural hippie anthem “Goin’ Up the Country” still resonates today, an earthy, utopian antidote to influencers, power brokers and shameless politicians. And while the Vietnam War and rampant urban blight of the 1960s and ‘70s are behind us, the primal urge to “get away from it all” hasn’t diminished, it just marches to a somewhat different tune.

Jim Lustenader has been a street photographer for decades, capturing the subtle, unguarded bits of theater that make up people's daily lives. His candid photos reflect stories found in everyday moments, evoking the humor, beauty, irony and absurdity of being human. He shoots film for its distinctive look and the fact that it forces him to pay close attention, and uses black and white because it reduces visual complexity and focuses the eye. A member of Soho Photo Gallery in New York City, Jim has been published in All About Photo and Black & White magazines and exhibited at the Griffin Museum, Umbrella Arts, In An Instant Gallery, Dartmouth College, Garrison Art, Salmagundi Art Club and many other venues.

All images and text © Jim Lustenader