About Charlie Hamilton James
Charlie Hamilton James is a National Geographic Photographer who specialises in telling stories about conservation, natural history and anthropology. Charlie has been obsessed with wildlife ever since he was a kid and at the age of seven he spent much of his childhood watching kingfishers. He started photographing kingfishers when he was Just 13 and three years later he was working on David Attenborough’s Trials of Life as a camera assistant.
Throughout his career Charlie has worked in both film and stills media as a presenter and a camera operator. He produced the four-part Halcyon River Diaries, presented a live beaver release on Springwatch and in 2014 he presented the BBC TV series I Bought a Rainforest.
Charlie is a Nat Geo Explorer and has won numerous awards with his work including WPY’s ‘Wildlife Photojournalist of the Year’ in 2016. He spent 20 years photographing the wildlife and indigenous communities in Manu National Park, Peru. Not content with simply documenting the people and wildlife of this rich, biodiverse ecosystem, Charlie spent time living and working with loggers and gold miners to better understand the struggles many of these so called ‘bad’ people experience.
In 2016 National Geographic Magazine celebrated the 100th anniversary of the National Parks system. This two-year project resulted in an issue dedicated entirely to Yellowstone National Park – America’s first national park and Charlie was one of several photographers assigned to photograph the wildlife people and landscapes of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem.
After a year-long hiatus Charlie is about to embark on another long-term assignment for National Geographic photographing cows across the globe looking at farming culture and their carbon footprint. Sat at Charlie’s make-shift kitchen table at his home in Bristol, we talk about all of this and much more. Enjoy!
To find out more about Charlie check out the links below –
charliehamiltonjames.com | Twitter @chamiltonjames | Insta @chamiltonjames