Hamilton, James

James Hamilton is a photographer who began as a painter studying at New York’s Pratt Institute in 1964. He spent the summer of 1966 working as an assistant to a fashion photographer and did not return to school, deciding instead to make photographs of his life in New York City. In 1969 he spent five months hitchhiking and taking pictures throughout the United States. After showing photos from a Texas music festival to the editors at Crawdaddy! – the seminal rock ‘n’ roll publication – he was hired as the staff photographer. That launched a 40-year career of staff positions held at the Herald, the Village Voice, and The New York Times Observer. He has worked on assignments for many titles, including Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, and Rolling Stone, and on set with directors George Romero, Francis Ford Coppola, Bill Paxton, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, and many others producing film stills. In 2010 he published a survey of his music photography, You Should’ve Seen What I Just Heard, edited by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth fame. Hamilton’s work was most recently featured in Ignacio Julià’s Linger On: The Velvet Underground (Ecstatic Peace Library). He continues to shoot and lives in New York City.