James Blakeway is founder, president and chief panoramic photographer for Blakeway Worldwide Panoramas, Inc., in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Blakeway was born and raised in Fargo, North Dakota, and received a B.S. in marketing from the University of North Dakota. After holding several marketing positions with Procter & Gamble, he decided to start his own business. Unsure which direction his business should take, he seized an opportunity to travel to Australia, thinking that he might find a business idea there. Indeed he did: he met two men who had created a phenomenal panoramic photograph of the Sydney Harbor. Blakeway worked with them until his visa expired, sold them his share of the business in exchange for a few hundred posters and returned to the United States to start his own panoramic photo business.

In California, Blakeway and a partner began selling photos from Blakeway's garage and from the trunk of his car. Later, he moved the business to Minneapolis and then to Eden Prairie, where the company is now located. Today Blakeway and his team travel the globe creating some of the most beautiful cityscapes made by anyone in the world.