You know, I live from day to day. For me, only one thing counts — it is the instant and the eternity, eternity that, like the horizon, always moves back. So it is difficult for me to talk about the past, because it is not myself anymore: everything I have to say is in my photos. My contact sheets are my memory, my instant diary. ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

Originally from Northern California, I currently travel the world. I first started taking photographs in 7th grade, using a Yashica 44 which I bought from a classmate. While in high school my sports photographs were published in the now-defunct Sebastopol Times newspaper. 

Since then I’ve worked as a college English Instructor, a trainer for Apple, a military police officer, a bookseller, a car washer, a photo lab technician, a clothes salesperson, a security guard, and a dishwasher. 

My early photographic influences were Edward Weston and Minor White, and I continue to be interested in White’s spiritual concerns about photography. Later, for a period, I became infatuated with photographers such as Art Kane, Robert Farber, Jay Maisel, Sarah Moon, and Joel Meyerowitz, and switched to color work, printing on Ilford’s famous Cibachrome. 

Cartier-Bresson's quote above, taken from Henri Cartier-Bresson: Interviews and Conversations 1951-1998, expresses my approach to photography better than I ever could have.

My writing has been published in B&W Photography, while my photographs have appeared in Photographer’s Forum, The Best of Photography Annual 2000, The Best of Photography Annual 2002, Popular Photography, and other journals.

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You can email me at james@bleifus.com.