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![Veiled Monument]( "Veiled Monument")
infoFrom PAMS Project
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![Breakfast with The Conversation]( "Breakfast with The Conversation")
infoFrom PAMS Project
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![Father & Son]( "Father & Son")
infoFrom "objects in mirror are closer than they appear / photos of my father"
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![feathers]( "feathers")
infoFrom "we see them in the sky bright green against this sky of grey" / The Parakeet Project
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![Parakeets in the tree]( "Parakeets in the tree")
infoFrom "we see them in the sky bright green against this sky of grey" / The Parakeet Project
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info
The story about a discontented dog living in Den Haag.
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![America is a Cancer (exhibition shot)]( "America is a Cancer (exhibition shot)")
infoFrom project "America is a Cancer." Image from exhibition All Cockroaches Are Beautiful (2021).
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![scan762]( "scan762")
infono description
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![untitled]( "untitled")
infoFrom the series "Barbie, what do your blue eyes see?"
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![I hate this town but it's where I'm from.]( "I hate this town but it's where I'm from.")
infoFrom the photo series "Life is an immigrant dog."
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![Dad exercising 1]( "Dad exercising 1")
infoFrom "objects in mirror are closer than they appear / photos of my father"
"Dustin brings sentiment, family and colour together in his expressive or evocative images, images that sometimes seem like snapshots, but James conceals a world of confrontation, beauty and recognition that hide behind them." - Faria van Creij
das james, or Dustin Anthony Schneider James (1995), is an imagemaker with an affinity for colorful collages and childlike aesthetics. His playful approach across different media creates a facade of lightheartedness in which his audience can easily enter despite its often-weighted subject matter. As an ecologist das’ projects often center around his immediate habitat and the factors that shape and influence it. Using one of his many analog cameras, he intuitively documents his environment, the people and things within it, oftentimes collecting items found off the street which he will later scan and use in his collages. As a Queer person with mixed heritage, das’s projects often touch on topics of duality and in-betweens. das takes an activistic approach within his artistic practice, frequently using text in some form or another within his projects, attempting in each to find the perfect balance between the playful and the political. das is a Capricorn.
Social media
Curriculum vitae
Education
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2025 - 2026Photography Fotodok Utrecht
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2025 - 2025Black Arts Summer School Metro54
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2023 - 2023Internship w/ S*an Henry Smith
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2019 - 2024Photography Den Haag, Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten diploma
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2016 - 2016California Ecology & Conservation course University of California Natural Reserves Systems
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2015 - 2018Photography (Minor)
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2013 - 2018Ecology, Behavior & Evolution university of california diploma
exhibitions
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2024Graduation Show Royal Academy of Art (KABK) The Hague, Netherlands KABK Graduation Show Group
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2023Species Literacy Scallywags Lunchroom The Hague, Netherlands Researcher and biologist Michiel Hooykaas shares his research on Species Literacy while artist das james shares his visuals created around the research of Hooykaas. Together, with science and art, they create a layered discussion around an ecological topic. Solo
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2023"Animal Day" screening Theater de Regentes The Hague, Netherlands In honor of Animal Day, my short film "what a life to be a dog in den haag" was screened alongside Andrea Arnold's documentary "Cow." There was a Q&A after my screening. Solo
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2023black rainbow MO2 Art Space Rotterdam, Netherlands “Black Rainbow” is a group exhibition dedicated to betweenities, liberation, and apparel as magic armor to protect the human body and soul’s authenticity and vulnerability regardless of race and gender. This exhibition is inspired by the life story of African-American occult thinker and writer Paschal Beverly Randolph, (1825-1875). He pioneered the introduction of the queerness theory in Northern America (over 100 years ago!) and dedicated his life as an activist for black liberation. Erotic magic, Black emancipation, gender fluidity, interplanetary spirit realms — these were but a few of the topics that preoccupied Paschal Beverly Randolph. Author Lara Langer Cohen considers the neglected politics of Randolph’s esoteric writings alongside the repeated frustration of his activism: how dreams of other worlds, above and below our own, reflect the unfulfilled promises of Emancipation. Group
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2023As Above, So Below The Grey Space in the Middle The Hague, Netherlands Group show of KABK 3rd year photography class Group
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2022You Need a Token Brutus Rotterdam, Netherlands Situated in the heart of the harbour in Rotterdam, the exhibition focuses on the “black” artist narrative when observing western contemporary trends of tokenism from America to Europe. By challenging the fixed boundaries of a token: the artist will have the ability to choose how to represent themselves and their community through their art. “You Need A Token” challenges the experience and perception of Tokenism/Wokenism/Jokenism. This mixed group of artists, having relations with places such as St Martin, Surinam, Egypt, Guinea, South Africa, Namibia, Jamaica, The Netherlands, The United Kingdom, The United States, and Germany, will provide their own unique perspectives on the nature of tokenization. By using humour, open spaces and engaging dialogues, the artist will help tell a story of a tokenized society through the perspective of a diverse mixed culture. Group
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2021Relational Terms: Nature thespectrum.space online, Netherlands Online exhibition through Spectrum, a curatorial practice by Yannik Guldner based in The Hague. thespectrum.space/dustinjames.html Group
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2021ACAB: All Cockroaches Are Beautiful not longer available Rijswijk, Netherlands Group show with the Cockroach Collective Group
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2018Kenshō UC San Diego Mandeville Gallery San Diego, United States Taken from the Japanese word Kenshō, which means "seeing one's nature," this photography exhibition showcased images made in natural landscapes in California, Oregon, Germany and Japan. By showing people interacting with nature in similar ways in a number of locations the images hoped to show the sacred spirit of self that is expressed when one comes in contact with nature. Solo
Projects
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2024
PAMS Project The Hague, Netherlands PAMS Project is an attempt at seeking lightness in heavy structures. These heavy structures are The Hague’s 587 registered Public Artworks, Monuments & Statues, or as I like to call them, PAMS. In a moment of excessive difficulty where I undergo the process of learning that I will one day be disabled, I navigate The Hague through lengthy walks and bike rides on a mission to find myself within the city’s 587 Public Artworks, Monuments & Statues. PAMS Project is a research project that investigates self, space and sculpture. It is as much about the journey as it is the destination. I get out of my room to find these PAMS but just by going out I consciously choose body over mind by actively engaging with my environment in an exercise to lighten the burden that is weighing on my mind, an attempt to reconnect with myself within the public space. Through intensive research I not only locate these works, but I also learn about their stories - the artists who made them and the reason for their placement within the public sphere. These stories provide much needed context, allowing more space for me to connect (or disconnect) with the works. As I speculate on my relation to these structures, I also question their relevancy and their (also my) position within the public space. As I encounter the works, I decide whether to document, intervene, recreate or reclaim what is depicted through my own perspective.
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2023
The Parakeet Project The Hague, Netherlands How do we distinguish what is native and what is non-native? Who decides this? Is it determined by where you are born? Is it decided by who your parents are? If you come from somewhere else, how long does it take living in a place before you are seen as belonging there? Will you ever be called a native, and if so, when? This project looks into the complications surrounding the concept of native-ness. I focus on the rose-ringed parakeet, a noisy non-native green bird with a mythical origin story here in The Netherlands. Attitudes towards this bird differ across Dutch society ranging from reverence and appreciation all the way to revulsion and the calling for its removal. The rhetoric observed in this latter argument is eerily similar to that seen in current anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe. Discovery of the word “eco-xenophobia” helped in contextualizing the negative ‘invasive species’ label that many seem to put to this non-native species. Through ecological research, collage, sculpture, and performance, I hope to merge the story of the non-human with the human to create a playful tension around the politics of the parakeet’s existence in Europe and its debated non-native status. I urge the audience to question who actually is creating these labels and distinctions, not just for the parakeet, but for our society as well.
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2017
objects in mirror are closer than they appear / photos of my father Redlands, California, United States “objects in mirror are closer than they appear / photos of my father” is a project straightforward in its approach but layered in nuance. As the second half of the title suggests, the work is built on an archive of images I have been creating of my father since I first picked up a camera in 2015. In those years, years where I still lived in California close to my father, I used the camera as a tool to document his fight with Machado-Joseph disease, a rare neurodegenerative disease that has taken the lives of my grandma and my father’s two brothers. Photography became a way to get closer to my dad, to investigate into the condition and being of a recently disabled man whose identity had been so built on his work, independence, and active lifestyle, a man who has watched his own loved ones fight and lose their battle with this disease. “objects in mirror are closer than they appear” refers to my own proximity to this disease. Knowing that I have a fifty percent chance of inheriting the disease has informed not only how I view and make images of my father, but many of my life choices. My closeness with my father, while beautiful, can often feel confronting and scary, like I am looking into some not-so-distant future. And even though it’s not his fault, I know my dad feels guilty about this. This amalgamation of love, worry and guilt is inherent in our relationship. Since moving to The Netherlands in 2019, moments with my father have become less frequent, but our deep connection remains. Documented snapshots of my dad have now grown to a practice of intentional portraiture to immortalize our time together. This project is still ongoing.
Commissions
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2023Ken je je buren? / Do you know your neighbors? Museum Naturalis The Hague/Leiden, Netherlands Working together with researcher and biologist Michiel Hooykaas, I interpreted the theories presented in his Masters dissertation around the topic of Species Literacy into a diverse series of visuals. An event was held at Scallywags Lunchroom where Michiel gave a lecture on species literacy and I displayed the visuals in the newly erected Scallery. finished
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20212nd Year Fashion and Textile documentation KABK Fashion Department The Hague, Netherlands Together with Ira Grunberger, we made video documentation of all the works from the 2nd year fashion and textile class. This video was presented at their final show. finished
Publications
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2025BRAIDS: 1st Issue Book CTK/Stroom Natalia Irena Nikoniuk The Hague, Netherlands A queer archiving journal, published annually and based in The Hague.
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2025Blackface & Gatekeeping Belonging: ERIF Brand & Product Study 2025 Catalog European Race and Imagery Foundation multiple Online, Netherlands A research report about Blackface in Europe, with a specific focus on Zwarte Piet exposure in contemporary culture 10 years after Zwarte Piet is Racist movement.
Awards and grants
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2024Paul Schuitema Award Paul Schuitema Committee The Hague, Netherlands The Paul Schuitema Stipendium is not just about rewarding an outstanding production. It seeks work that resonates with the diverse creative legacy of Paul Schuitema — encompassing photography, typography, furniture design, painting, and interior architecture, while honoring his role as a revered educator at our Royal Academy of Art. The selection criteria emphasize not only artistic merit but also social relevance, the rigor of the design process, research depth, organizational acumen, authenticity, and forward-thinking innovation. The awarded work must demonstrate a clear potential for ongoing exploration and development, a quality the stipendium aims to nurture and amplify. Through these rigorous standards and the committee's expertise, the scholarship ensures a cohesive and impactful selection that aligns with Schuitema's enduring influence and visionary approach. The committee has decided to grant the Paul Schuitema Stipendium 2024 (€ 3000,-) to das james for PAMS project. In the PAMS Project, das james turns personal challenges into a profound exploration of identity and urban space. His mission: discover and connect with The Hague's 587 public artworks, a path for personal healing and artistic discovery. Using photography and collage, das james documents his journey, weaving personal narratives with artwork stories. Collaborating with community, historians, and artists, he creates a collaborative journey. PAMS Project captivates with vibrant colors and whimsical imagery, yet examines societal themes. Interpreting artworks, das james introduces insights, challenging relevance today. His work engages public spaces, encouraging viewers to reconsider relationships with landmarks, highlighting public art’s significance. His playful imagery and lens spark conversations about urban space, engaging the community, securing das james as the Paul Schuitema Award winner. Through his accessible language and thoughtful use of photography, das james fosters a welcoming and digestible dialogue on this serious topic, using photography as a powerful tool to initiate and enrich conversations.