James’ photographic practice seeks both the sublime and the characterful; where texture, form, light and atmosphere all have a part to play. Capturing the connections between the environment and the objects that move through it, he draws from a varied life, of passionate excursions around New Zealand and 14 years overseas; from the mystical coast of Wharariki to the beaches of Oaxaca, his lens seeks to reflect the elegance and mysterious balance of the natural world.

A visual epiphany during an ANZAC dawn ceremony in his late teens led to his passion for photography. Struck by the silhouetted forms of veterans against a rising sun, he felt an urgent need and deep frustration at not being able to capture the visual drama of the moment. After buying a camera, a sense of "irresponsible freedom and curiosity" led James hitchhiking around New Zealand, eventually inhabiting a house bus in relative isolation, near the base of Farewell Spit in Golden Bay.

Today, his practice remains an extension of those early solitary excursions, in aid of "feeling out and getting to know" the shifting pressures of the land, sky, and sea in a deeply personal way. Reminding his audience that for those willing to see, beauty is always out there waiting for us; his work isn’t so much about a subject, as much as it is a map of a visual excitement and an archive of his experiences and feelings. His recent photographs from around Aotearoa are nothing less than a devotional offering to the landscapes he calls home– a quiet documentation of beautiful things as they are found.

"My photographs are simply a way of heightening my own experience of the external world and sharing beauty– eliciting presence, intimacy and appreciation." 

– James Watkins