James Allan Cash F.R.P.S., F.I.B.P. - 1902 - 1974. Born in a small village in the heart of Cheshire, James Allan Cash had an insatiable wanderlust and knew, that although he had trained as a radio engineer, his ultimate career would be very different. At 23 he moved to Canada, where he worked for the Northern Electric Company, helping to run their broadcasting station. He then traveled installing theatre equipment and on all of his trips he carried a camera. After each trip he would write a travel journal and illustrate it with his pictures. He wanted to see more of the world and wondered if traveling could be made to pay for it. He spent all of his spare time studying photography, bought an Auto-Graflex Jr. and started to take photographs he believed would sell in magazines and so began a long career of photographing all that he found curious or beautiful. He met a Russian girl, Betty (also a travel writer and photographer) and she shared his fascination with pictures and thus a life was started, that saw them visit over 100 countries and establish The J. Allan Cash Library. Allan Cash’s medium was black and white and his chosen camera was the Leica, a camera which dominated the first half of the 20th century. They were (and still are) regarded as productive tools for taking high quality images that are firmly anchored in the great photographic tradition of the documentary and straight photography. The Leica was invented and designed to be a tool for the creative reproduction of scenes of wonder and passion. The Allan Cash Picture Library is a reflection of that photographic passion.