Russell James looks to new horizons in WA

For the better part of three decades, West Australian photographer Russell James has been immersed in the world of fashion and celebrity. Backstage at a Victoria’s Secret fashion show one minute, on location with Kendall Jenner and her mum Kris the next. Hanging out with famous friends, like Isla Fisher and Sacha Baron Cohen or Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness, before jumping on a plane to shoot Cindy, Tyra or Gisele in some glamorous international destination. So exactly how, then, did he come to be standing, camera in hand, beside an enormous pile of lithium in WA’s Pilbara last year, completely entranced and with the buzz of an idea starting to form in his mind? The dust, the heavy machinery, and the sheer scale of everything around him could not have been more different to the life he led in New York until the pandemic temporarily put paid to his jetsetting career. Yet one thing was familiar: The feeling of excitement that accompanied a looming challenge. One year on, and James has swapped the fashion industry for the mining industry. He and his wife, Ali Franco, have been working for WA company Mineral Resources, creating brand awareness and helping bring to life the company’s vision for its new 13-storey Osborne Park headquarters, which is being touted as a potential world leader in workplace wellness, and will feature a medical centre, creche, cafe and restaurant. He is also collaborating with Indigenous artists whose work will be featured in a gallery at the new headquarters. It is quite a plot twist for James, 59, but one that has brought him back to his roots in WA. “I assumed my life would be on pause, and that we would go back to business as usual (after COVID-19). But for me, two things changed profoundly,” he tells STM. One of those changes was the opportunity to rediscover what he loved about his home State. Up until last year he visited Perth for short holidays but is now based here indefinitely with Franco and two of his three children. “I’ve always looked at Australia as this amazing location, but I started to actually live it, and to see my kids thrive here,” he says. The second change came about through watching the mining industry’s COVID-19 response, largely through the eyes of Mineral Resources boss Chris Ellison, whom James had met in the States through their mutual friends, Jackman and Furness. It transpired that Ellison had also privately supported James’ non-profit venture Nomad Two Worlds, which provides art grants to people from marginalised Indigenous communities. “I became really interested in the mining space, I said to Chris ‘I feel like you guys are not expressing as you could be about the positive side of what you’re doing’,” he recalls. On visits to mine sites James sought to view them through a different lens, through photographic essays which he hopes will help attract more women to the industry; a challenge in the wake of recent FIFO sex assault scandals. “The industry has to be by women, for women,” he says. “There are astonishing women out there but they haven’t been marketed to enough. There is a necessary conversation around safety, and the best way to reconcile that is to balance the playing field.” “Communicating it is so important but it’s a challenging space. How do I translate from the fashion world, working with companies like Ralph Lauren and Burberry, and how can my knowledge possibly be useful in that sector?” “So I found out, and it’s been quite fascinating ... it’s as exciting as any fashion shoot I was ever on.” It’s a big call. James’ career as a fashion, celebrity and fine arts photographer has seen him create some of the world’s most memorable magazine covers, which in many cases sent the cover stars on a trajectory to superstardom. His 1996 shoot with Tyra Banks, for example, saw her become the first black model to land a solo Sports Illustrated cover. Ten years later, he shot Ashley Graham in her groundbreaking Swimsuits For All campaign which catapulted her to international success. James has had cause to reflect on his career recently via a new project he is embarking upon with American NFL great Tom Brady, whose supermodel wife Gisele Bundchen has posed for James on numerous occasions. Brady has ventured into the booming non-fungible token (NFT) space with digital platform Autograph, which he dubs the “new era of collecting”. Brady has brought together identities from sport, entertainment and culture — including Tiger Woods, Canadian singer The Weeknd and Simone Biles — to create digital collections and experiences. Through the platform James will release images from some of his most celebrated shoots. “My vision for Autograph is to be the best and most innovative NFT platform in the world,” Brady says. “Joining forces with Russell in the photography space is logical. If you want to be the best you need the best on your team.” James was actually poised to sign with another major NFT platform when the couple asked him to team up with them instead. “The phone rang, it’s Gisele, she said: ‘Would you talk to Tom?’ Tom told me he was involved in an NFT platform, he said ‘what if you were to lead out in this space?’ Tom understands a lot about our world, he speaks the language, and it developed from there.” James admits to initial scepticism about NFTs — digital tokens traded via a blockchain that can be attached to anything from an artwork to a photograph or footage. “But during COVID we saw something extraordinary; collectors around the world who couldn't travel to go to art exhibitions started to go online and buy traditional art, but also started buying NFTs which were digital artworks,” he explains. “Art has always been a way for people to put their money into something they love, that they are passionate about, and to protect their money, and grow it.” Autograph will give James the chance to tell the story behind some of his famous photos, such as the Banks cover. “I don't think people really understand how important in America that was; a black woman on the cover of one of the whitest institutions; the blonde, blue-eyed smiling Sports Illustrated. It was a huge deal,” he recalls. “She took that cover moment and blew it up. It made her mainstream. I’m going to retell some of those stories. I was lucky enough to be shooting the best. Models and celebrities were a very big part of my world.” Among them was Jenner, whose orbit James entered when she was still an aspiring model and famous only because of the family she was born into. “When you’re from a family like that, you can catch a lot of flack, because they’re already privileged. But she’s like everybody, just trying to figure out what they’re doing in life, and ultimately how they feel. It was fun to see the world through her eyes.” James brought Jenner and her mother to WA for a shoot in the Kimberley, which they still tell him remains a life highlight. Ali has been a constant throughout James’ career, coming on board as his creative director when their life “became so big”. “From day one, I would be at a shoot, and on the phone to Ali talking about my approach. We would edit from two different perspectives,” he says. James is perhaps best known for his time working for Victoria’s Secret, an experience he likens to “being a roadie with the Beatles”. He had a close insight into the rise and then dramatic fall of the billion-dollar lingerie behemoth, which brought the curtains down on its famous fashion shows in 2018 and has since battled controversies over its culture, its founder being linked to Jeffrey Epstein and accusations of “fatphobia” and misogyny. James recalls a very “pro-women” environment and believes it imploded after the CEO Sharon Turney, whom he describes as an “amazing mentor”, departed. “When I started with them it was a small company who said loud and proud ‘women don’t just want to wear underwear practically, underwear is lingerie and it’s a beautiful thing,’” he says. “Sharon was driving for inclusion and diversity and she took that company to a multi-billion-dollar company.” He believes the company’s recent inclusivity push has missed the mark. “Inclusion means everybody — if you’re fit and sprightly, or if you are plus-sized, everyone is in the game. They need to find a balance.” “People seem to want to cheer for their demise, but they employed a lot of women, who believed in what they were doing, which was sell a great product. I have really mixed feelings about it. But it was the ride of my life.” James was poised to begin a global tour of a fine arts photographic study of the Kimberley when the pandemic hit. He has left WA twice in the past 18 months, to shoot Miranda Kerr and then Sacha Baron Cohen in Sydney, and got caught up in outbreaks and border closures both times. “I think my forays into the world are completely done, until whatever this is, is gone,” he says. He is comfortable with that, particularly as he watches children Harry, 15, and Lola, 19, (eldest Emily is in Sweden) take to Perth life. Having a new challenge to throw himself into also has him at ease with letting go of his old life, for now. “It feels quite foreign to me, which is what excites me,” he says. “I need to be challenged.”

Russell James looks to new horizons in WA

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