Jim has been a professional photographer and writer for over twenty-five years.  After graduating with a BA in English and minor in photojournalism from St. Louis University, he worked three years for the Associated Press and later for The Portland (ME) Newspapers where he was a staff photographer for five years.  For six years he was a photographer and photo editor for the Providence Journal for six years.

In 1987 he started a freelance business working on corporate and editorial projects around the world.  Daniels has produced stories on such diverse subjects as; a series on adoption in Central America (a runner-up for the 1988 Pulitzer Prize), a four year documentary of a woman living with AIDS, a story that helped close a dangerous prison, and a series on women's health in the developing world. He collaborates with businesses and corporations interested in telling their story of service, awareness, and growth.

Lives of Service, published by Orbis Books (NY) in 2001. In 2006, Daniels compiled a global report on HIV/AIDS programs for Family Health International and he is currently documenting the Asmat people of Papua for two museums. A book about children in the Dominican Republic is in production.  Jim Daniels is based in Portland, Maine where he lives with his wife Mary Lello, a licensed Acupuncturist.