Jim Riche Photography

After over 45 years in the Film & TV Visual Effectsbusiness I have been able to return to what I have always loved: traveling withmy camera and finding new ways to look at the world. I rarely put the cameradown so once again I am working full time as a photographer. I love to travelwith my wife Melissa and now that we are both retired from our normal jobs, ourfree time has opened up many opportunities to photograph the world:architecture and nature’s beauty.

I currently live in Ilminster, Somerset in the UnitedKingdom. We moved here in the spring of 2024 from the southern Californiadesert, Palm Springs. While in California my wife, Melissa Riche, and I had ourbook published in August 2018; “Mod Mirage- Mid Century Architecture of RanchoMirage”. I did all the contemporary photography and Melissa was the writer andresearcher.

I graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a BFAdegree in Photography as a Fine Art, then moved to Washington DC where I begana career as a freelance photographer and part time teaching assistant at theCorcoran College of Art & Design. Soon thereafter I was invited to beDirector of Photography on a stop-motion animation film. This led to a 45-yearcareer in the film/animation and visual effects business.

I have worked as a Director of Photography, VisualEffects Supervisor and Executive Producer, working on TV commercials, featurefilms, dark rides and other visual effects projects. I was ExecutiveProducer/Head of Production at Digital Domain and Ntropic in Los Angeles andReel FX in Dallas. I also worked as a visual effects production consultant atBlur Studio for three years. Some of the projects I worked on during my careerwere Deadpool, Tron:Legacy, X-Men First Class, Curious Case of Benjamin Buttonand PeeWee’s Playhouse.

In my photography and as a Director of Photography I alwaysconcentrate on composition and use the camera and light to create a new visionof the scene before me. I look for design in the normally overlooked aspects ofan object or a scene, focusing on the elements that make up a vastarchitectural structure, a historic church, a desert left to the elements orthe beauty of nature’s designs in a landscape.

My work has been included in numerous shows and exhibitionsand I recently received a Silver Medal from The Prix de la Photographie, Paris(PX3) for my photographs of the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport.

My work has also been included in numerous publications andeZines including Palm Springs Life, Atomic Ranch, Blur Magazine, Dodho,Camerapixo and Desert Modernists book where I  also did the cover.

We have spent the last 4 years traveling to exciting newplaces. We have been to Patagonia, Iceland, Spain, and France. I hope tocontinue my travels with Melissa to explore new-to-me places and discover moreof what our incredible world has to offer.