For over four decades working as a staff photographer for five different publications in New York City, James Hamilton captured some of the most remarkable people and events of the last half century.

Hamilton’s career began in 1964 as a painter studying at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. In 1966, he found a summer job as an assistant in the studio of a fashion photographer. By summer’s end, Hamilton did not return for his last two years of school, deciding instead to become a photographer and document his life in NYC.

In 1969 he spent five months hitchhiking and taking pictures across America. After showing photos from a Texas music festival to the editors at the seminal music magazine Crawdaddy!, he was hired on the spot as the staff photographer. This launched a forty-year career of staff positions at The Herald, The Village Voice, Harper’s Bazaar, and The New York Observer. Hamilton also worked on assignment for many publications including New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and as the stills photographer for directors George Romero, Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach and others. Hamilton lives in New York City.