I'm Matthew James. I tell stories for a living.
I've always thought of myself as a storyteller first. Photography and film just happened to be the tools I fell in love with.
By day I'm the cinema lead at a luxury wedding studio in Orange County. That work taught me to find the emotional center of a moment and make people feel it in a single frame. I also build and run the studio's ad campaigns, from the first click to the booked client, so I care about what an image does after it leaves my hands.
The fantasy world is where my heart has always been. I play D&D, I'm drawn to the quieter, fading ages of Tolkien's world, and I've lost more hours in Azeroth than I'd like to count.
I shoot in a style I call castle-core: candlelight, old stone, worn leather, fog, and the feeling that the story started long before the camera arrived.
Now I bring all of it to the brands and creators who build those worlds. You get one person who understands your audience, makes the images, and answers for what they sell.
Good to know
Orange County based
I travel for shoots, or you can ship your product to me and I'll shoot it on my own sets.
No handoffs
I make the images and run the ads myself, so nothing gets lost between the shoot and the campaign.
A short client list
I take on a small number of brands and launches at a time, so each one gets my full attention.
Let's make something worth backing.
Tell me about your brand, and I'll tell you how I'd photograph it.