James Rupley is a book publisher, professional photographer, former practicing attorney, hunter, fisherman, and amateur competitive shooter. He is a founding partner of two separate publishing companies – Mott Lake Publishing and Headstamp Publishing – both of which are industry leaders in the firearms reference genre.

James is the co-founder and producer of the Vickers Guide series of premium coffee table reference books (published by Mott Lake Publishing), in partnership with U.S. Special Operations combat veteran Larry Vickers. The Vickers Guide book series revitalized the firearms reference book genre, and its sales have set a new benchmark for the firearms publishing industry. James and Larry have traveled to multiple public and private collections around the globe, researching and photographing historically significant small arms which have largely been inaccessible to the public. As of April 2025, Mott Lake Publishing has published seventeen critically-acclaimed titles in the Vickers Guide series on a wide range of firearm topics.

As Headstamp Publishing's creative director and founding partner, along with N.R. Jenzen-Jones and Ian McCollum, James Rupley helped reinvent the traditional high-end reference book. Headstamp Publishing’s first title, Chassepot to FAMAS: French Military Rifles, 1866 – 2016, was pre-released in May 2019 via Kickstarter and became the second-highest grossing publishing category Kickstarter to that time (of 30,200 total publishing category releases at that time). Headstamp Publishing’s third title, Pistols of the Warlords: Chinese Domestic Handguns, 1911 – 1949, released via Kickstarter in 2021, surpassed all of its prior releases, bringing in US$1.54 million in its first 30 days and thereby becoming Kickstarter’s third-highest funded publishing category Kickstarter to that time (of 53,800 total publishing category releases at that time). Headstamp Publishing continues to publish new books on an increasingly wide range of topics, which can be seen in the list below.

James Rupley has also served as a proofreader and firearm subject matter reviewer of the six most recent novels by New York Times Bestselling Author and former U.S. Navy SEAL, Jack Carr: Savage Son, The Devil’s Hand, In The Blood, Only The Dead, Red Sky Mourning, and Cry Havoc published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books.

James Rupley is also a regular photographic contributor to Watches of Espionage, a horology-focused media platform run by a former Case Officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with whom he is currently producing a book covering a selection of watches utilized by military and intelligence units.

A graduate of The Citadel (The Military College of South Carolina) Honors Program (Magna Cum Laude) and Tulane University Law School (Cum Laude), James has practiced law in the New York City offices of a large international law firm and has served as general counsel for a retail and wholesale business, and held memberships to the legal Bar Associations of the States of New York and Tennessee. He has had his photography and commentary published in a multitude of publications. James has also held a commercial drone pilot license through the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.