James Stark was attracted to a Bohemian life from an early age. In his teens he was listening to Jazz and Old Blues and became interested in the Beats. Upon discharge from the Army in 1966 he moved to New York City’s Lower East Side and became a part of the “Hippie” scene. Before the Summer of Love, the Lower East Side consisted of disenfranchised artists, radical politicos and people who wanted little to do with corporate society. After the “Summer of Love” left its destructive excess and the Hippies went back to mom and dad to becomes yuppies James moved back to California and settled in San Francisco.

For the next several years he continued to make art working in film, painting and photography. In 1976 he met up with some people who were starting a rock n’ roll band and needed some photographs. This began a relationship with the band Crime creating their logo, posters and continuing to take photographs of the band. This turned out to be the beginnings of a new era of rock n’ roll to be called punk. He was soon documenting the scene with his photographs appearing in several publications of the era and published a well received book about those times call “Punk77”. His new book, “The Band Crime, Punk77 Revisited”, was released in latter part of 2009, published by Last Gasp.

After the punk scene lost its terror and was taken over by the suburban crowd James moved on to other pursuits; motorcycles, painting and a continued exploration of photography. In the late eighties he became interested in industrial/city/urban landscapes. Out of this time came his altered colorized urban cityscapes. After the dot com boom forced him out of the city he ended up in the rural San Joaquin Valley transposing his unique vision on the rural landscape.

James Stark has been photographing for close to Forty years. His web site, www.jamesstark.com, contains several portfolios spanning this time period. From the streets of New York City to punk clubs and back streets of San Francisco to landscapes of California’s Great Central Valley.

If you have an interest in mounting a show or representing Mr. Stark’s work please contact him at:
email: james@jamesstark.com
Phone: 559-591-5620
Mail: PO Box 481
Sultana, CA 93666