James W. Delano is a romantic. His duotone photographs evince a poet's eye - dreamy, impressionistic, subtle, often melancholic. His photographs portray the ironies and contradictions of 20th-century Asia. The duotone prints themselves contribute to the sense of timelessness. Describing his working method, James says: "I must pass by quickly and quietly in order to capture the 'out of the corner of my eye' immediacy that I seek before I disturb the scene."
Often his photographs look more like paintings, the scenes stolen from the corners of Asian tapestries and panoramic folding screens. Physically, his prints look different in a way that's both curious and attractive in today's world of digital photography. The black-and-white scenes, the candid nature of the subjects, the tonality, and the contrasts touch a chord in our memory of photography as it was in the long-ago, more glorious time of Cartier-Bresson and Frank.
While studying in university, Delano one day came upon some old photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Andre Kertesz and Robert Frank. They ignited his curiosity in a way his studies hadn’t. After working in New York with the likes of Annie Leibovitz and Deborah Turbeville and later with Michel Comte and Greg Gorman in Los Angeles on fashion and celebrity shoots, Delano went off on his own.
Photographic assignments have also taken Delano from the rainforests of Southeast Asia to the Silk Road in Central Asia, as well as to Africa, & Europe. His photographs have appeared in Le Monde II, Time, Newsweek, Outside, Travel & Leisure, Interview, Lens Work, Geographical, Blind Spot, not only Black & White (Australia) and Zoom (Italia). Delano received the 1998 Award of Excellence from Communication Arts for an Editorial Series, and the 2000 Alfred Eisenstaedt (Eisie) Award administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and presented by Life Magazine, for work done in China. Delano’s Tibet and China series have been jury-selected for the PDN (Photo District News) Photography Annual in the photojournalism category in 2001, 2004 and 2006. Delano’s 2003 Three Gorges and 2004 Shenzhen, China projects have been cited with by Picture of the Year International awards. The series entitled, “ Impressions from China”, was featured as one-person shows at the Leica Gallery, Prague in September 2001 and Leica Gallery, Germany in December 2001.
His book, Empire: Impressions from China (Five Continents Editions) has been selected by jury for the 2005 PDN (Photo District News) Photography Annual and received the 2005 Award of Excellence from Communication Arts. China series was the first one-person show of photography ever at the La Triennale di Milano Art Museum, Milano, Italy in October/November 2005 and at Palazzo Battioro, San Stae, Venice, Italy in April/May 2006.
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