Chantal James

Chantal James (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a mixed media artist (photography, video, book making and collage) and editor. A graduate of Parsons School of Design, she was drawn to photography's process of image making and storytelling that could be personal and subjective yet also universally accessible. Influenced by Roy Decarava, Walter Firmo and James Barnor she began photographing Black immigrant communities connected to her family in Harlem and Brooklyn. This work eventually led to visual ethnographies in the larger Black Atlantic, traveling and living in Haiti, Brazil, Portugal and Cuba where she co-founded La Rampa magazine —a platform dedicated to challenging historical narratives and visuality. Chantal has exhibited her work internationally at photography festivals, including the Scotiabank Contact Festival in Toronto and Miami Art Basel. She has recently contributed articles to VOGUE magazine.