BIO
James Hastur is a fine art and fashion photographer from New York and a graduate of Emory University. Working through the medium of Ziatype prints, and taking inspiration from a wide variety of sources, ranging from philosophers and art movements to fashion photographers and designers, he imbues his work with a sense of melancholy and beauty.

ARTIST STATEMENT
Contradictions and opposites surround our everyday existence. We strive to feel a part of a group, of the larger society, despite the concurrent need to distinguish ourselves through individual expression. We find ourselves living an absurd existence, looking for meaning in a universe inherently devoid of any. Through life and death, reality and dreams, and night and day, we constantly move between multiple contradictory modes of being. Fashion exists as the vehicle for this contradiction. Fashion allows us the ability to reconcile contradictions. To bring the surrealist notion of merged realities onto the human form; to balance the gap between being clothed and nakedness.

I attempt to highlight this contradiction in my work. Taking inspiration from the tenants of surrealism, and a diverse range of philosophers, writers, and artists, I create my work using digital photography and printing using primarily the Ziatype process. I work to emphasise the deep overwhelming blacks and bright whites, making every moment from the subject to the final project a merging of two contradictory realities.