James Oatway is a South African photojournalist and currently part of the leadership team of Reuters visuals in Africa. He is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
He graduated from Rhodes University with a Bachelor of Journalism degree in 2000. His photographic work has predominantly revolved around themes of social inequality and people affected by conflict.
He was the former Chief Photographer and Picture Editor of the Sunday Times newspaper (2015) before leaving to pursue a career as a freelancer.
On 18 April 2015, during a wave of xenophobic violence, he photographed the murder of a Mozambican migrant by South African men. The man’s name was Emmanuel Sithole and the images of his death sparked outrage and made international headlines. The army was deployed and mass demonstrations were held across the continent.
Oatway has received various international awards including multiple Pictures of the Year International (POYi) awards. In 2015 he was named the South African Journalist of the Year. In 2018 his Red Ants project won the Visa d’or Feature Award at the Visa Pour l’image Photojournalism Festival in Perpignan, France.
Together with photographer Alon Skuy, he published a photographic book about xenophobic violence in South Africa called [BR]OTHER, (Jacana, 2021). The book received an Award of Excellence during the 80th Pictures of the Year International Awards’ Photography Book of the Year category.
He is co-author of The Battle of Bangui (Penguin Random House, 2021), a non-fiction book documenting one of the key events during the 2013 coup in the Central African Republic.
He taught documentary photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg and was a member of the Panos Pictures photo agency.
