James North Art Collective

The James North Art Collective hasl opened a new gallery space dedicated to the exhibition of Documentary Photography.  The new gallery has been installed in the lower level of James North Studio and provides an additional 450 sq. ft of exhibition space.  The members of the Photography Gallery are Jean Crankshaw, Jeff Tessier, Larry Strung and Jim Chambers.  All four photographers work in the genre known as Documentary Photography whose objective is generally to chronicle people, events or places of historical or social interest.

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James Chambers has been a commercial photographer and photo-based artist for over 35 years.  Upon receiving his Fine Arts Degree from McMaster University he embarked on a career as a free-lance cinematographer.  Jim has worked as staff photographer for the Royal Ontario Museum, Head Photographer for the Art Gallery of Ontario, and for over 35 years has run his own free-lance business.  In1987 Chambers joined the Creative Photography department at Humber College and was the program coordinator for 6 years.  He retired in 2008 as a professor in the Image Arts Program of the University of Guelph-Humber.  Chambers has exhibited and published his photo-based artwork in Canada, the United States and abroad for many years.  In 2005 Jim was featured on Bravo Television in the series “The Artists Life”. Jim owns and operates The James North Studio Gallery in Hamilton, home of the James North Art Collective with his wife, ceramic artist, Colleen O’Reilly. Contact: jim.chambers@cogeco.ca

Jean Crankshaw is a free-lance photographer who immigrated to Canada from Portsmouth, UK in 1966. Jean was born and raised by the sea, for which she has a strong affinity; consequently her work often features water. Jean loves to travel and ideas and inspiration come from journeys both real and virtual in her quest to push the boundaries of creativity. Combining a passion for photography and the world around us, she aims to capture moments to make the heart sing.

Larry Strung is a commercial photographer who moved to Hamilton from Liverpool, UK, in the fall of 2006.  He quickly made a name for himself in Hamilton through a project he launched in 2008 called Hamilton 365 – where Strung created a portrait of a different individual in the city each day throughout that calendar year.  The images were posted daily to a website called http://www.hamilton365.com, which gained a cult following.  So popular was the project, that he was invited to show a printed installation of the project at the Art Gallery of Hamilton for a two-month run in the fall of 2009.  Beyond his studio and environmental portraiture, Strung also does extensive work in urban landscape and architectural photography.  Contact – larry@strungfoto.com

Jeff Tessier is a freelance photographer based in Hamilton.  Jeff moved to Hamilton from Pennsylvania in 1990 to attend McMaster University, where he did graduate work in Religion and Politics before settling into a career as a freelance photographer.  His work is focused primarily in the areas of architectural photography and urban landscapes.  He photographs regularly for the City of Hamilton’s Culture Division, has shown his work in several Hamilton galleries, and also serves as the photography editor and principal photographer for H Magazine.  Jeff has taught at McMaster University and Mohawk College, where he currently teaches the architectural photography course. Contact: www.jefftessier.net