Bio
James' interest in photography began with a Kodak 110 Instamatic film camera that he carried with him on high days and holidays. This simple plastic box and slim film cartridges became his memory device.
Graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, USA, with a BA in Rhetoric and Communications, James moved into advertising management in the USA and UK. This environment forming ideas starting with blank flip charts and random conversations to finished visual stills and films in darkened edit suites was fascinating and exciting.
A prescribed time out to recover from illness saw James take a sabbatical in 1997. His love of cartography from large dusty wall maps in geography lessons, dreaming in the back row what the words and dots actually looked like first hand, confirmed his desire to see more of the big blue ball.
A new journey began with a backpack, a set of Lonely Planet guidebooks, a Minolta 35mm camera, two lenses and endless rolls of 35mm film. James set off, as photographer Paul Strand once said to,
"Look at the things around you, the immediate world around you. If you are alive it will mean something you, and if you care enough about photography, and if you know how to use it, you will want to photograph that meaningness."
Returning to London in 1998 his first solo photographic exhibition A Year followed at The Royal Geographical Society in London. Photographic commissions began with a season at Lord's Cricket Ground and further commissions saw James working in the corporate, editorial, educational and charity sectors for clients such as BackUp, Getty Images, Henley Royal Regatta, O2 and Thrive.
James's work has hung in numerous galleries in the UK and USA, including Getty Images Gallery, Affordable Art Fairs in London/New York City, The Scottish Parliament, The Royal Botanical Gardens, Chelsea Harbour Design Centre, and published in various books, Henley Royal Regatta - A Celebration in Photographs (2014), Lord's - A Celebration in Pictures (2014), Dalguise (2010), The Art of Collecting Photography (2006), The Fundemantals of Photography (2006), Lord's - The Cathedral of Cricket (2005), Thrive - Celebrating 25 Years (2003).
Commissions and personal projects are published in various diverse publications including, The Sunday Times, Telegraph Magazine, The Mirror, Gardens Illustrated, SOURCE and HELLO!.
The Times described James and his work as,
"...a contemporary pioneer in landscape photography who has a strong graphic sense taking a genuine intuitive delight in the ambiguity of visual form through his startling evocative images..."
James completed his BA at the University of Pittsburgh, his MA in Photography at the University of Brighton, England and was awarded Associateship of The Royal Photographic Society, (ARPS). James is a Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, (Stationers' Company. He is also Chairman of London Concert Choir, a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society and official photographer for Henley Royal Regatta.
James is a versatile photographer with a career that covers many genres. He provides photographic images that enrich our knowledge and understanding of the world around us. He lives in south London with his family combining commissioned work along with self-initiated projects for publishing.
