The free concerts held at Coronado Public Library are the Library’s most popular events. Photographer Keith James has attended many of them, and now his portraits of musicians from concerts held in the Library’s Winn Room over the past nine months are on view in the corridor outside the Winn Room.
In these black-and-white photos, James aimed to capture the distinctive personality of these musicians, each of whom is deeply immersed in their art. The collection comprises a diverse representation of musical styles, instruments, genders, ages, and ethnicities.
“We who have attended these concert have been privileged to experience breathtaking, world-class music, right here in our local library,” reads James’ artist statement accompanying the exhibit. “The Friends of the Library deserve our sincere thanks for making this possible.”
James, a Coronado resident, is a photographer and writer with a background in science and technology. Originally from Wales, he recently retired after a long career in drug discovery and both major pharma and startup biotech companies. He holds a PhD in organic chemistry from Cambridge University and spent two years as a NATO postdoctoral fellow and Fulbright-Hays travel scholar at Stanford University and Columbia University.
He has taken up photographing Coronado in his retirement. He enjoys all types of photography, but especially abstracts in color and architectural photography in black-and-white. He also writes photo essays covering a range of photography-related topics.
