A few years ago I decided to change my life. It was not that I had a bad life. On the contrary, I earned a good living, was "successful" in my field, and was ... comfortable... bored.

In 2002 I started over. I traded my briefcase for a camera bag and immersed myself in photojournalism.

Since then I've eaten rice and beans with Haitian villagers, clung to lamp posts in hurricanes, waded through the fetid mud of the Asian Tsunami and been blown off my feet by suicide bombers in the Iraq desert. I've been moved to tears by death row inmates, drug-addicts in re-hab and children in war zones. I've laughed on the porches of farm houses and between the booths at small town festivals.

Photojournalism has not only allowed for all that but demanded those things from me. I made the right decision. I've found my passion. I'm learning to be a better journalist and a better person.

I'm digging into life. Trying to experience it in the eyes of my subjects and come back with images that take my readers beyond our every day world and into the world of others. More than anything,I want to do justice to the to the people that are allowing me into their lives and the world that has allowed me to change mine. That is my goal. These are my pictures...


James J. Lee is a former staff photographer for Army Times, a Gannett owned publishing company covering all aspects of miltary and defense industries.  Lee has a B.A. in English from The Citadel Military College of S.C., and studied Photojournalsim at Western Kentucky University.

He left his staff position in November 2007 to pursue a freelance career. He now lives with his wife in the Northern Virginia.