James Herron

Nationality: British

Date of Birth: 11th December 1975

Occupation: Freelance writer and photographer

My entry into journalism was a natural progression rather than a choice. It began with my love of travel and my passion for photographing and writing about the amazing things I saw. At first, I focussed purely on the hedonisic pleasures of travel. I romped through the Australian outback in a 4x4, skied the mountains of Colorado and dived the coral cays of Fiji.

Everything changed after a trip to Central America. It was while volunteering at an orphanage in the highlands of Guatemala, and later as a humanitarian observer at a village caught in the middle of the Zapatista conflict in Chiapas, Mexico, that my eyes first saw beyond the tourist’s point of view. I could no longer ignore the grinding poverty, brutal history and ongoing political struggles of regions I had previously thought of as cut-price paradises for adventurous tourists.

As my career as a travel writer and photographer began to take off, I continued to struggle with this contradiction. Most of the things I wanted to write about had no place in a typical travel story. Yet, I didn’t have the confidence or the experience to make the leap to more serious journalism.

So, I decided to go back to basics and take a postgraduate training course in journalism at City University in London, to learn all the skills I felt I was lacking. I also went to Asia, to see if I really had what it takes to be an international journalist. Since then, I have interviewed dissident comedians in Burma, met environmental activists cleaning up the holy Ganges in India and written about the terrible impact of Vietnam-era cluster bombs in Laos. It has been a real “in at the deep end” learning experience, but I have come out of it with a stronger commitment than ever to making a successful career in journalism.