Encounters

"James O'Mara knows the elusiveness of time and the permanence of one moment. His rhythm is comparable to that of music, performed with a deep understanding but a willingness to abandon logic and convention to instinct and emotion." - Elvis Costello, Rome, 2016 The photographic art of James O'Mara can be approached in as many ways as the poetry residing in it. Discussing his work, O'Mara says, "I try to approach every adventure in life as if it were a dance. I need that pulse, that rhythm." In fact, in his pictures we can perceive not only the moment captured by the camera lens, but also a 'before' and an 'after'. He has the ability to grasp the dynamism of the scene, even in perfectly still subjects: the ephemeral moment, the instant in which a figure reveals his or her nature, or events show new meanings. As the writer William Gibson says about his work, Often their images are extraordinarily beautiful, but never merely so. Anchored in a warm sense of humanity, their own and the photographer's, they afford glimpses of life as seen through a more informed eye, a more lyrical reading of the play of light. This large-format volume is ideal for showcasing the author's finest shots, which span about 50 years: from the rock stars of the late Sixties (Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Rod Stewart, Joni Mitchell, and Carole King to name a few), to the more recent portraits of people, famous and otherwise, as well as captured moments of everyday life from around his beloved cities of Vancouver, Tucson, Los Angeles, Paris and, naturally, in Tuscany.