James Warman - Projects
Hands, Head & Heart (2018)
Hands, Head & Heart is a long-term documentary portrait project exploring the lives, creative practices and working environments of artists across Shropshire.
Inspired by the quotation:
“A labourer works with their hands. A craftsman works with their hands and head. An artist works with their hands, head and heart.”
James photographed each artist within their own creative space and asked every participant the same series of questions. This consistent approach created a body of work that explored not only artistic practice, but also the motivations, inspirations and personal philosophies that shape creative lives.
The project resulted in a self-published photobook combining environmental portraiture with the artists’ own words, creating a lasting record of Shropshire’s contemporary artistic community.
Hands, Head & Heart – Part II (2021)
Three years later, James revisited the project to discover how artists and their practices had changed following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Returning to many of the original participants, Hands, Head & Heart – Part II documented the resilience, adaptation and renewed creativity of artists working through an extraordinary period of uncertainty. Although no accompanying publication was produced, the project formed an important continuation of the original series and expanded its exploration of creativity, place and artistic identity.
Photographic Impressionism (Ongoing)
Photographic Impressionism is James’ continuing exploration of abstraction through photography.
Using intentional camera movement, long exposures and in-camera techniques, familiar landscapes are transformed into expressive studies of colour, atmosphere and movement. Rather than recording a literal representation of a place, the work seeks to communicate emotional response, memory and experience.
This body of work has been exhibited widely, including in A Meeting Place, a two-person exhibition with celebrated Shropshire artist Jane Beesley, and as a permanent exhibition at Shropshire Supports Refugees.
Backstage Pass (2023)
Backstage Pass is an ongoing documentary project exploring the relationship between musicians, audiences and live performance.
Drawing on many years photographing concerts and festivals, the project goes beyond performance photography to capture the atmosphere, anticipation and emotion that define live music. It formed the basis of James’ third solo exhibition at Shrewsbury Coffeehouse.
The Redundant Suit (2020)
Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, The Redundant Suit is a conceptual self-portrait reflecting on isolation, adaptation and the changing nature of everyday life.
Rather than referring to redundancy from employment, the title reflects the sudden redundancy of the suit itself—a symbol of familiar routines and identities that disappeared as home and workplace became one. The work considers how our sense of self is shaped by the rituals of everyday life and how those rituals were transformed during the pandemic.
The photograph was exhibited as part of The Postcard Project in London and reproduced in the accompanying publication.
She Thinks You’re My Son (2024)
Created for the exhibition Representations of Time, this nine-image photographic montage explores memory, recognition and dementia.
Using a childhood school photograph that once sat beside his mother’s bed in her care home, James progressively deconstructed the image to reflect the gradual erosion of recognition caused by dementia. The title comes from the words spoken by his mother during one visit:
“She thinks you’re my son.”
The work became both a personal response to loss and a broader reflection on memory, identity and the emotional impact of dementia.
Origins (2014)
James’ first major photographic project, Origins, explored the landscapes walked by Charles Darwin during his childhood in Shrewsbury over the course of a year.
Through a series of photographic collages, the work combined landscape, history and imagination to consider how place shapes identity and memory. The project formed James’ debut solo exhibition at the Shropshire Wildlife Centre and marked the beginning of his exhibiting career.