James Wiley

“Someone wise once told me that for a person to look at a photograph in a magazine or newspaper for more than 5 seconds, it would have to be one Hell of a photograph.”

James Wiley is both a photojournalist and a fine art photographer. It’s a double life that has allowed him to really understand what it is about an image that holds the viewer’s attention. And while the two disciplines are quite distinct, there are aspects of each that have informed and developed his passion for photography.

On the one hand, photojournalism is all about the critical point in time: “the photojournalist must find that one defining moment, or a peak action moment in sports, which is why I love it so much. It is exhilarating, and back in the days of film only you never knew exactly what you had until you got back to the darkroom. Then you knew for sure whether you had ‘The Shot’ or just ‘A Shot’.

While on the other, a body of art photography relies upon having a distinct style or subject: “My fine art is totally about style. Subject matter can be anything as long as it conforms to my style.” And, as a browse through his ChooseFilm album will reveal, James’s approach is well-refined:

“I shoot strictly 35mm on high speed film and will often push it, then print on high contrast paper. This will create a lot of grain which many people hate but for me it just adds texture and actually helps with the impressionistic feel that I like to create.”

Drawing on Film Noir cinematography and the work of British photographer Bill Brandt, James’s collection titled ‘Chiaroscuro’ (Italian for clear-dark) makes use of bold contrasts that affect the entire composition. This is exemplified in such a shot such as his take on the Guggenheim, New York:

Guggenheim

“How could I shoot this building in a way it had never been done before? Well, when the light was right I got what I wanted. The brilliant highlights with contrasting deep shadows. Sometimes I will ask people to look at this photograph and tell me what building it is. Most of the time the answer is something like, “I’m not quite sure but I think it’s the Guggenheim”. – Exactly the response I want!”

James delights in finding new angles for subjects that have been photographed thousands of times previously: “What I try to do is apply my high contrast technique to these everyday subjects. It is a combination of the right light, exposing for the highlights and a bit of dodging and burning in the darkroom but finding subjects that will comply in every way is rare.”

His unconventional, Hitchcock-esque, shot of the famous statue of Winston Churchill by the Houses of Parliament in London is a perfect illustration:

Churchill

“The light was right for a silhouette and Churchill’s form is unmistakeable. From there, it was a matter of finding the correct angle/lens combination to feature the power of the statue with the Houses of Parliament in the background. As I recall it was a 105 lens. I printed with a grade 5 filter and dodged the sky a bit for even more contrast. You really need to see this image large to experience the impact of it.”

An equally filmic scene is captured in his photograph through a window of the Louvre, in Paris:

Louvre

“When I entered one of the rooms, I saw this incredible statue outside the window. It was sort of bathed in light from overhead and created an almost dream like effect – one of those lucky surprises.”

Having always been a “visual” person, James says that his childhood interest in drawing led him inevitably to photography. The purchase of his first $50 Kodak range finder, aged 16, changed everything:

“It had shutter speeds, ‘f-stops’ and everything. I became totally fascinated and absorbed in it, especially after building a small makeshift darkroom with a cheap enlarger. I still remember the excitement of seeing that first print, bad as it was, slowly appear in that tray. I still feel that same excitement when I watch that magic happen today, possibly because the prints are better.”

The joy of the darkroom still resonates loudly with James today. His heavily textured photography is reliant on film processing, and to him there’s just no substitution for getting your hands dirty: “I have tried dodging and burning with Photoshop and cannot even come close to what I can do using my hands or a piece of cardboard in a darkroom.” The manual approach allows James to achieve grain in his images, something which he feels is vital to his black and white collection:

“I am no expert with digital but from what I can see shooting at a higher speed creates something called ‘noise’, which from what I’ve seen, in no way resembles grain. While I find grain can actually enhance my photographs, noise appears to be much larger and almost ‘blotchy’ looking.”

Angel

Taken from his Chiaroscuro collection, the photograph titled “Angel” demonstrates what can be achieved in exposure:

“I spent a lot of time on the streets at night for a magazine photo shoot on street youth. This high impact image wound up as the lead picture for the essay. The only light available was from a sign to the left of the subject. By exposing for the highlights only, all shadow detail was eliminated.”

It’s an evocative shot that sits neatly amongst the other, more recognisable, subjects in his collection. And the reason for that is down entirely to James’s guiding philosophy:

“The goal is hopefully a final print of a subject that has been photographed like it never has been before.”

James uses Nikon F3s, and an old, “reliable”, FM. He shoots mainly with Fuji Neopan 400 and Kodak Tri-X. For colour his preferred film is Fuji Velvia.