Career
His black-and-white panoramic landscapes of the built landscape explore the relationship between human society and its surroundings. James began his working career as a journalist. He moved to Canada in 1966, working for Time magazine in Montreal.
He moved into arts administration in 1975, working for the Canada Council in Ottawa.
In the mid 1970s, he began to take photography more seriously and by 1982, when he left the Canada Council, he was exhibiting his photography regularly. James works in series and much of his photography is available as books
Louisiana Campagna Romana, 1991 The Italian Garden, 1991 Viewing Olmsted: Photographs by Robert Burley, Lee Friedlander, and Geoffrey James, 1997 Geoffrey James: Running Fence, 1999 Paris: Photographs by Geoffrey James, 2001 Geoffrey James. Parks and Walkways of Oshawa, 2001 Place, 2002 Geoffrey James: Past/Present/Future, 2003 Une Mort Très Digne: L"Histoire Du Cimetière Mont-Royal, 2003 Toronto, 2006 Utopia Dystopia, 2008 Geoffrey James: Field Notes, 2008 A retrospective of his work, Utopia/Dystopia: The Photographs of Geoffrey James was mounted by the National Gallery of Canada in 2008.
Between 1987 and 2002, he used large-format and panoramic film cameras to record landscape that has felt the impact of human activity.
The earlier work examined idealized landscapes of pleasure gardens followed by an exploration of asbestos mining sites and the United States/Mexico border fence in southern California.