About

Jim Batty

A few words about me

I am a Photographer, Author and Graphic & Photographic Designer.

These are my three favourite professional pursuits, and occasionally I'm lucky enough to have them all converge within a single project … and everything becomes wonderful!

I have been making and taking photographs since I was a kid, keen on National Geographic magazine and exploring local neighbourhoods with a 110 instamatic. For many years my working life in graphic design subsidized a global wanderlust — that involved packing precious stocks of Kodachrome 64 in foam rubber tubes and a manual Nikon to some very remote and dusty places. This, in turn, lead to producing photos for editorial and travel publications and I began travel writing – and was shortlisted for a Thomas Cook Sunday Times Travel Writing award.

During the late 90s I turned from crossing continents to exploring the mental world by studying for an MPhil in Philosophy. With a grounding in classical and analytical philosophy, modified by a healthy skepticism inspired by Hermann Hesse's novel The Glass Bead Game, I ultimately wrote a thesis about the philosophy of photography called An Intentional Understanding of Photographs – an investigation into pictorial representation and photographic understanding. If you're interested, here's a brief introduction to the topic: How do Photographs Represent Things?

After this internal voyage, in 2004 I felt a titanic urge to simply pick up a camera and photograph things. I started up my own online stock image library and began paddling the River Thames in a Stearns inflatable kayak searching for the best watery and boaty images. Simultaneousy I continued to design graphically within the corporate world and, of course, always having a camera in my bag meant I became de facto a conference, event and portrait photographer into the bargain. Busy, good fun.

In 2009 my partner and I moved permanenty aboard a 53-ft narrowboat. My book Narrowboat Life: Discover Life Afloat on the Inland Waterways (Bloomsbury; 2016, fully revised 2019) is the culmination of our explorations of Britain's southern waterways and its community, while living on a continuously cruising boat.

My publisher suggested I photograph the interiors of vessels to complement the book. This sparked a completely new interest for me and I now love tackling the photographic challenges of interior design afloat. What could be better?

These days I also work part-time as a Graphic & Photographic Designer for a medium-sized hi-tech business, producing photo-montages of products in development and designing photo-infused exhibition stands, marketing material and, most recently, product and corporate videos.

Three ducks on a calm green River Thames: one looking left, one looking right and the furthest duck in the middle looking at the viewer

 

Two images: Leander Club rower dressed in pink jacket and cap sitting in rowing skiff, Henley; Traditional Khmer woman dancer in crowd of dancers holding up a sun umbrella, Thailand

 

The crew of narrowboat 'President' and butty 'Kildare' tying up at Braunston Marina

Potted History

Here's some personal and professional highlights:

Selected Projects

Here's a glimpse. To see more, have a look at my ever-growing photographic projects gallery.

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