James Gaffney Photography

05/26/2023

THE PEOPLE YOU’LL MEET – Had the particularly good fortune of interviewing hundreds (probably thousands) of memorable people from every walk of life on six continents as a travel photojournalist. But few made me laugh as much as Jana Peřinová, the animated owner of the Moldau Hilton youth hostel in the Czech village of Český Krumlov. Local officials hated her archway mural (painted by an Australian backpacker and former guest), slamming it as an embarrassment because Peřinová’s bare-bones hostel is decidedly *not* a Hilton property. (For her it’s the whole point of the joke.) Moldau, meantime, refers to the storied Moldau River that courses around this teardrop-shaped island-village. "Every year the town council asks me to paint over it," Peřinová said laughing uproariously, "and every year I tell them to shove it."

James Gaffney is a commercial, editorial and fine-art photographer, guidebook author and journalist.
Blog: http://bit.ly/1kFooCG

03/31/2023

There are places you will travel that if you’re lucky will write its story on you. One of those places for me is Girona, in the Catalan province of Spain, known best for its medieval walled old city and old Jewish quarter dating to the 12th century. Linking old and new is the Eiffel Bridge, created in 1904 by the same architect behind the famous Parisian tower. I framed my shot and waited a good hour before the right light and subject came into my viewfinder. So much of life is being in the right place at the right time. (Available at my online store https://bit.ly/3M7nJ06)

02/10/2023

Negative space ... as a professional travel photographer I am forever fascinated by how seemingly non-essential elements can both intensify and direct the eye to the subject at hand. In this case a man reading a newspaper in Helsinki. (To read my full story on the quirky Nordic country click https://www.jamesgaffneyphotography.com/blank and scroll down to the headline “Last Tango in Finland.)

01/13/2023

Aging, out of tune and still showing damage from Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters, this musical relic occupies a dusky corner inside the old Toca Bar & Grocery, a long-ago watering hole for local Isleños, the descendants of the original 18th-century Spanish settlers in Louisiana who settled in lower St. Bernard Parish half an hour from New Orleans. (The building has been preserved and relocated to Los Isleños Museum Complex & Village.) To me the piano still sounds oddly beautiful precisely because of its flaws. (Click link https://bit.ly/3ZtdPtX to purchase non-watermarked print and/or explore other photographic works at my online store.)

01/06/2023

I always love visiting Finland to photograph the aesthetic of minimalism in this Nordic country’s public spaces especially in capital Helsinki, as seen in this stairwell designed by the country’s legendary architect Alvar Aalto. Reserved and circumspect, this dignified expression of mid-century modernism truly holds up a mirror to the heart of Finnish culture.

12/16/2022

This photo I took on the fly served as inspiration for my recently completed screenplay, a dramatic comedy set in a small Italian village that centers around themes of mortality, forgiveness, broken hearts and rediscovered dreams.

12/09/2022

Like many travelers I was surprised to discover France’s “cowboy country,” called the Camarque, a marshy, untamed delta tucked like a secret just south of Arles as the pink flamingos fly (another common sight). Sent to cover the annual Gypsy Festival in the coastal village of Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, I met a horse whisperer named Chrétien (pictured above), who summoned a quartet of the area’s legendary Camarguese horses from faraway in a field in the late-afternoon sun. Magic.

10/21/2022

Sunset in early fall just before harvesttime backlights an old abandoned ghost barn and brown-tasseled cornfield in northernmost Vermont, a stone’s throw to Quebec just across the border.

10/07/2022

Pleased and honored to see one of my unit stills from production used to promote the amazing “Four on the Mantle,” written and directed by filmmaker Rachel Jacob (), a story about “love, loss and family.” has already won numerous awards on the 2022 film festival circuit including Best Short International Film at the prestigious Paris Women Festival and Best Cinematography at Toronto Feedback Film Festival. Cheers to that!

06/17/2022

My thoughts. My mood. My bedroom in Lucerne, Switzerland at 3:15 a.m.

05/20/2022

A woman gazes out to sea in Les-Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a working-class coastal township tucked like a whisper on the Mediterranean in Southern France.

04/22/2022

FROM THE VAULT – I always found it a joy to shoot the Cadillac CTS-V. At the time few supercoupes could compete with this street ICBM’s ability to pull double-duty as a swank luxury ride while boasting 640 horses, a top speed of 200 mph and an asphalt-eating 650 lb.-ft. of torque. If that wasn't enough it could also turn your 0-to-60 world into a blur in a mere 3.7 seconds. Cheers.