About Chantal James

Chantal James (b.1977, Toronto Canada) is a photographer and researcher based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her work explores shared human experiences and the visual language of emotion, seeking the essence of things through an improvisational method akin to musical syncopation. Intuitive and impulsive, she captures expressions that verge on the supernatural, revealing “holy moments” of alignment.

Chantal is drawn to polychronic cultures where time is fluid and the boundaries between public and private life are blurred. For her social life reveals itself in a sacred dance of gestures. Comicerative and congenial to whatever the subject has done, she is witness to the exquisite within the mundane and focuses on inward experiences that reveal profound truths. Chantal is a collector of vivid beauty and objects that hold meaning.For over 30 years, photography has shaped her worldview. A graduate of Parsons School of Design, she began photographing street life in Brooklyn and Harlem in the mid-1990s.

Seeking the “warm culture of the south,” she traveled extensively in Latin America and the Caribbean, ultimately settling in Rio de Janeiro in 2005. In 2000, while living in Havana, Cuba, she founded La Rampa Magazine, a large-format print publication dedicated to photography, design, and non-traditional storytelling, with issues produced in Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, and recently Portugal.

Over the past 20 years, Chantal has exhibited her work at international festivals including Miami Art Basel, The Smithsonian FolkLife Festival, and Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival. She contributes to VOGUE, writing about politics and culture in South America and the Caribbean. In 2025, she plans to launch La Rampa Creative Retreats to share her passion for travel, photography, and Brazil.