Pete James (1958–2018)

[excerpted from British Journal of Photography obituary]
Peter James was an instrumental figure in British photography, establishing an outstanding collection of photography at the Library of Birmingham over his 26-year career at the institution, and researching and curating exhibitions at the V&A, National Portrait Gallery, Somerset House, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Ikon Galley, the Library of Birmingham, and many more.

Born in 1958, James found his way into photography almost by accident, first realising he had an interest in images in the late 1970s. “I was working at the Kodak plant in Harrow,” he told Genesis Imaging back in 2013. “Used to visit the Kodak Museum a lot during breaks”. He went on to take a BA in Humanities, Ceramics and Art History at the Polytechnic of Wales from 1984-1987, and to study the History of Photography, and Art & Design, at Birmingham City University from 1986-89.

He became Curator of Photography Collections at the Library of Birmingham in January 1989 and stayed until he was made redundant – along with the rest of the photography team – in October 2015. Over those 26 years and 10 months he built up an unrivalled archive of British photography, one of the UK's National Collections of Photography and including over three million images, ranging from historical photographs by Sir Benjamin Stone to entire archives of work by renowned figures such as Daniel Meadows, Martin Parr, Brian Griffin, John Myers, Anna Fox, Vanley Burke, and Val Williams.

Fortunately James had worked on many other initiatives over the years, including chairing the Committee of National Photography Collections, co-founding the Photography Collections Network, co-founding and co-directing GRAIN: the photographic hub and network for the West Midlands in 2012, supporting projects such as Ten:8, Arts Council West Midlands, Rhubarb Rhubarb, and FORMAT Festival, lecturing and working with many academic institutions, writing books, and curating exhibitions. He was a speaker at the Fast Forward: Women in Photography conference at Tate in November 2015, and more recently worked with Mat Collishaw on his exhibition Thresholds which used VT Technology to re-stage one of the earliest exhibitions of photography – William Henry Fox Talbot's presentation of photographic prints at King Edward's School, Birmingham.