Mark James has been a photographer for over twenty years. He is self-taught and has worked in virtually every area of the medium, from photojournalist to commercial photographer to fine art gallery owner and everything in between. Mark officially began his career working for a small weekly newspaper in Fort Collins, Colorado called The Triangle Review. His passion for photojournalism still burns and a large portion of his work consists of events, politics, and noteworthy people of our time, from Ronald Reagan to Ross Perot. Mark was a member of the Colorado Press Association for many years.
In 1988, Mark was the principle founder of the Illustrated Light Gallery, a fine art gallery specializing in the presentation and promotion of fine art black & white photography. The gallery eventually had a membership of over 50 photographers and hosted many important exhibits of photography, including Shelby Lee Adams, a Lewis Hines retrospective, Russian photographer Vladimir Betenko, and an exhibit by Hal Gould and Camera Obscura in Denver, Colorado. Illustrated Light closed its doors in 1995, but the member photographers still meet annually and are viable contributors in the field of photography. The gallery has been credited with bringing to northern Colorado some of the finest examples of historic and contemporary photography.
Since 1995, Mark has photographed the Colorado landscape with a pinhole camera. The project received a significant boost when he was awarded a two-week residency at the William Allen White cabin in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. It was there that he was able to work out the technical logistics of using a pinhole camera in the field and solidify his aesthetic vision for the landscape. Over the years, Mark was won various awards, including twice placing in the top 100 photographers in the Ernst Haas Golden Light Awards out of a field of thousands.
Mark stays involved in the community, donating time and materials to various civic organizations. Most significant among them is his work with Wingshadow and Frontier High School that help at-risk youth. He spent four years documenting people in gangs and "alternatives" and has an extensive body of work of those individuals. His photographs are often used in multi-media presentations for fund raising activities and has made an important contribution to the success of these organizations.
Presently, Mark is preparing to publish his first book of pinhole landscape photographs. Mark and his wife, Patricia, have 3 sons and live in Wellington, Colorado.