People and places inspire James Canter’s photography. He enjoys photographing people as they interact in their environments and with each other. On streets all over the world is where he finds enquiry, intrigue, and encounters. He often initiates conversations with subjects by candidly photographing them and then showing them their picture. This interaction gives him introspection, relevance, and remembrance. He also looks for patterns, shapes, and contrast on the streets.

Not all, but most of James’ pictures are black and white. James believes that black and white emphasizes textures, contrast, lines, and shapes in a way that color cannot. Black and white strips away distracters and uncovers meaning. It focuses on direction and quality of light, creates emotion, intensifies spatial relationships, highlights motion, and supports composition. And for James, he believes it creates a timeless quality to photographs.

Various artists influenced James’ photography. Classic painters such as Rembrandt and Goya often portrayed a single light source in their paintings and also blended paints to create a smoky, dark feel to their paintings, and these techniques are transformative for James. The high contrast, black and white films of the 1950s called Film Noir affect both his shooting style and processing technique. Similarly, the early jazz photographers such as Herman Leonard used a single light source in a smoked-filled room to capture portraits of jazz icons, and these pictures fascinate James to this day. James also studies street photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Garry Winogrand, Walker Evens, and Josef Koudelka and their brilliant use of subject matter and street locations to tell stories.

People and places are James’ passion. His pictures capture scenes from Cuba to Italy to Morocco and beyond. They include buildings of all shapes and eras, shadows intensified by fog and night, and people from all walks of life. They are all from the street. Their stories are for your enjoyment.