BIO
Photographer James Richard Kao resides in Redondo Beach, California but considers his office the world. He has traveled to all seven continents and early in life excelled at drawing and sketching. He studied landscape architecture at Cornell University and spent much of his professional career as a city and urban planner. In 2012, James started the pursuit of a new career as a sports and travel photographer. He has won several national awards in the U.S. for his sports and travel work and has been published in magazines like Trail Runner Magazine, Hana Hou! and PDN among others. In 2014 James was an associate with Photographers Without Borders on an assignment in the Ecuadorean mountain community of Pistishi, documenting its efforts to revamp its economy through eco-tourism. Besides photography, James has a passion for outdoor adventure sports, foreign languages, and gelato. Last July James circumnavigated Lake Atitlán in Guatemala solo on a standup paddleboard over eight days and plans to return this November to repeat the journey with a documentary team to highlight the lake’s growing water pollution problem. See more of his work at www.jameskaofoto.com.