Imagine surfing a perfect blue wave on a 90-pound redwood longboard, off a deserted beach of sparkling white sand. Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume takes us back to the halcyon days of pre-war California, when the earliest American surfers were busy inventing beach culture. Meet these tussle-haired free spirits who camped on the deserted beaches of Southern California, had lobster bakes and luaus with local Hollywood girls, and surfed at a time when nobody knew what surfing was. The beautiful and nostalgic photographs that surfer Don James took of himself and his friends capture the lost Eden of the California surf dream in all its glory and innocence.

Surfing San Onofre to Point Dume: 1936-1942

Arts & Photography

James, Don

Photography & Video

Chronicle Books+

Primarily a pictorial history of the community of Butte, Montana. Via an extensive selection of pictures from the Smithers historical collection, the history of Butte is presented in a broad and unique manner. It includes not only mines, buildings, and interesting people, but a view into what like was like during the heyday of copper mining.

Butte's Memory Book

Caxton

A strong sense of nostalgia and a yearning for a simpler life are the accompaniments to the images in Don James' Pre-War Surfing Photographs. At the end of the Depression and before the beginning of WWII, James and a small group of friends lived a charmed life in Southern California. When school was out, they roamed the undeveloped Eden-like coast from Malibu to San Onofre, scraping together gas money for their worn jalopies, lugging 90-pound wooden boards to the ocean, sleeping in lifeguard huts and makeshift tent camps in the sand. They lived hand-to-mouth, plucking an endless supply of abalone and lobster from the ocean and raiding nearby orange and avocado orchards at night. What spending money they had came from guiding rumrunners to secluded coves, selling fresh fish to local restaurants, life guarding in posh beach clubs in Santa Monica, or acting as stuntmen and extras for Hollywood films. At that time, there were fewer than 200 surfers in the entire state, and James and his friends were inventing a beach/surf culture that would endure for decades. In 1936, at 16 years old, James began chronicling those days with his father's folding Brownie camera. For water shots, he would place the camera in a homemade semi-waterproof pine box, rest the box atop his board, and paddle out to the calm water adjacent to the surf. Focal range of the Brownie was limited, and James preferred to keep his frame uncluttered, so many of the photographs have a similar weight and balance. The images in Pre-War Surfing Photographs are the result of his preliminary endeavors, the works that mark the beginning of James' career. Throughout his life, James continued to perfect his skills going on to take a multitude of elegant surfing photographs, for which he became famous, until his death in the 1990s.

Don James: Prewar Surfing Photographs

Warshaw, Matt

Individual Artists

T. Adler Books

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Books by James, Don