Raised in New Haven, Connecticut, Jim started out at Hofstra University studying theology and ended up with a Bachelor of Arts in photography at Western Washington University. In 1979, he received a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from San Francisco Art Institute.

Jim is a Professor of Art at the California College of Arts and Crafts and a member of Magnum Photos. He has been exhibiting for over 30 years and his innovative use of image and text make him a landmark photographer of our times. He began to explore experimental storytelling and the potentials of combining image and text with “Rich and Poor”, (1977-1985), where he juxtaposed the residents of welfare hotel rooms with the upper class and their elegantly furnished home interiors to investigate the nature of American myths about class, power, and happiness. In “Raised by Wolves” (1985-1995), he worked closely with and documented runaway teenagers in San Francisco and Los Angeles to create a book and exhibition that combined original photographs, text, home movie stills, snapshots, drawings, diary entries as well as single and multi-channel video, sculpture, found objects, light boxes and other 3-D elements. He is currently working on two books on migration in Europe to be published in 2009 and 2010 by Steidl. His fine art is represented by Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York and the Stephen Wirtz Gallery in San Francisco.

He has received numerous awards and grants including the 2011 Deutsche Börse prize, The Guggenheim Fellowship, three National Endowment for the Arts awards, the Henri Cartier-Bresson Award (2007), a Eureka Fellowship, The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation Fellowship, and both the Hasselblad and ArtCouncil Awards.

His Editorial clients include: Another Magazine, French Vogue, Nowness, Time Magazine, The New York Times Magazine. Among his Advertising clients are Hermes, and Burberry.