William James (photographer)

For other uses, see William James (disambiguation).

William James
Photographer William James and two of his sons in 1936
Born	1866 (1866) Walsall, United Kingdom
Died	1948 (aged 81–82)
Nationality	British-Canadian
Occupation	Photographer
Known for	Chronicling early 20th century Toronto through photographs

William James was an early and prolific photographer who chronicled Toronto, Ontario.[1][2][3] His works have been widely collected and republished. James came to Canada, from England, in 1906, when he was forty years old. He and his wife immigrated with five children and seven dollars to their name.[4]

He made freelance photography his occupation in 1909, and was the founding President of the Canadian Photographers Association. Between then and the end of the 1930s, hundreds of James' photographs appeared in publications such as The Toronto World, The Toronto Daily Star, and Chatelaine; he at one point sold pictures to all seven of the city's papers.[4]

Mike Filey, the author of a long-running column in the Toronto Sun, on the history of Toronto, described James as a technical innovator.[3] James invented a developer that would eliminate grain in his photographs, and wrote articles about his experiments with camera technology and chemistry.[4]

James captured a photo of the first cable car to run across the whirlpool rapids of the Niagara River, which required him to shoot upside down with his Speed Graphic camera.[4] He was also the first photographer in Canada to make an aerial movie, which he did from the open cockpit of a biplane.[4]

The City of Toronto Archives hosts a collection of over 6,000 of James's photographs.[3] His son, Norman James, became a press photographer for the Toronto Star.

Gallery

• 
  Canada Life Building Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• 
  Flagpole painter with view looking west on Front Street
• 
  Bank of Commerce, 1930
• 
  Looking southeast from Richmond and Bay streets
• 
  Horses and delivery wagon stuck in the mud
• 
  Sir Henry Pellatt's funeral at Toronto Armouries
• 
  Toronto 1924
• 
  Toronto 1918
• 
  Toronto 1929
• 
  Board at the Toronto Stock Exchange
• 
  Child and adult collecting coal or coke
• 
  Crowds as soldiers leave Union Station 1914
• 
  Family reads newspaper on Armistice Day
• 
  Fruit and vegetable store on Coxwell
• 
  Auditorium Theatre in Toronto
• 
  Aerial view of Eaton's College Street 1930 Toronto

References

1. Kevin Plummer (2009-09-12). "Historicist: Anonymous Players on the Stage of History". Torontoist. Often referred to as Canada's first photojournalist, William James spent more than thirty years documenting Toronto and city life in all its varieties.
2. William James (1999). William James' Toronto Views: Lantern Slides from 1906 to 1939. James Lorimer & Company. ISBN 9781550286786. Retrieved 2013-03-06. William James' Toronto Views.
3. Mike Filey (1996). From Horse Power to Horsepower: Toronto: 1890-1930. Dundurn Press. pp. 14–15. ISBN 9781554881734. Retrieved 2013-03-06.
4. Bassnett, Sarah; Parsons, Sarah (2023). Photography in Canada, 1839–1989: An Illustrated History. Toronto: Art Canada Institute. ISBN 978-1-4871-0309-5.