 James P. Blair prepared for a photographic future by studying with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.Following graduation he photographed at the Pittsburgh Photographic Library for Roy E. Stryker, the director of the Farm Security Administration’s photographic-documentation project of the 1930s.For two years he served as a Lieutenant (j.g) in the U.S. Navy, spending part of that time assisting refugees from North Vietnam.