D. (born January 9, 1942)[1] is a Canadian documentary photographer, who lives in Montreal and has been influenced lifelong by Eugene Atget.
These black-and-white photographs illuminated his subjects, nature's spaces and the changes wrought by society on both its more idealized creations such as formal gardens and its darker side - the asbestos mining landscape.
[4] For some years, James has been fascinated with the modern architect Jože Plečnik (1875-1957) and his architecture, especially the social places he created, in Ljubljana, Slovenia and exhibited photographs in shows about his work, both in Canada (2019) and abroad (2022).
[1] At Wadham College, he was editor of Isis, the student weekly magazine and upon graduation left for a job as a reporter for the Philadelphia Bulletin.
[9][10] In the 2000s, he studied suburban and urban landscape[11] in cities such as Paris, France (2001) (he didn't photograph the tourist sites which to him were a giant cliché),[6] Lethbridge, Alberta (2002) and Toronto, Ontario (2006) with which he has a love/hate relationship.
[15] He has been impressed with the little known modern architect Jože Plečnik (1875-1957) and his architecture, especially the social places he created, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, for many years and has been planning to do a book of photographs on his achievements.
[6] In 2019, the Daniels School of Architecture, Toronto, Ontario exhibited a show of his photographs about Plečnik, Working Spaces/CivicSettings: Joze Plecnik in Ljubljana[16] and in 2022 his show Social Spaces: Joze Plecnik and Ljubljana was exhibited at the Architecturzentrum Wien, Vienna, Austria and at UNESCO, Paris, France.
[16] James's thoughtful photographs, taken at both day and night, and through the seasons, show Plečnik's studio and the wide range of his urban achievements.
In the exhibition at the Daniels School of Architecture, photographs on multiple digital screens illuminated the architect's social spaces.
He had many solo shows afterwards, both nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at NSCAD (1983), at the University of Kent, England (1985), the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa (1986), The Power Plant, Toronto (1993), the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario (2001), a retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario (2008), and at the Oregon Centre for the Photographic Arts, Portland, Oregon (2010).
His work was included in exhibitions starting in 1977 with 13 Canadian Photographers, Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin and included afterwards in shows in such places as Paris, France (1987), Budapest, Hungary (1987), New York (1987, at the MoMA in 1996 and 2009), Los Angeles (1990, 1991, 1996)), Kassel, Germany (1992), Naples, Italy (1994), at the Canadian Centre for Architecture Montreal, Quebec (1996, 2000), and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1998, 2007, 2012), and elsewhere.