We’re proud to share that our June 2024 issue featuring Grayson Allen—shot by James Patrick—won an ADDY Award, reaffirming PVCL’s leadership in visual storytelling.
We asked James to reflect on life behind the lens. Here’s what he shared:
I’ve reviewed a catastrophic number of photographs. In my early 20s, I was a photo editor for both a newspaper and a magazine. That’s a fancy way of saying I sat behind a blueberry iMac and sorted through thousands of images—per hour. The process was brutal. Only a fraction of a percent ever made it to print. The rest? Gone.
Who would willingly sign up for that kind of failure rate? Apparently, me. One day I thought: What if I just took the photos myself?
I had no training—just one college photo class (I got a C-minus). But 800 covers later, I’ve taken more than 80,000 images to land those 800. Early on, I would have told you it was all about technical precision. Now? I know it’s something else.
The most powerful images don’t just look good—they feel something. They hold weight. They carry emotion. The best ones aren’t flawless; they’re resonant. Safe images fade. Emotional ones stay with you.
That’s become my compass: not chasing perfection, but chasing truth. The best images don’t just fill space. They hold it.
jamespatrick.com