Bill Jay, Vintage Silver Gelatin Print Photograph Weegee Arthur Fellig Photo Portrait, 1968

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This work is hand signed verso. I believe it was printed in the early 1980's it does not have an … Read more This work is hand signed verso. I believe it was printed in the early 1980's it does not have an edition number on it.

William 'Bill' Jay (12 August 1940 – 10 May 2009) was a photographer, writer on and advocate of photography, curator, magazine and picture editor, lecturer, public speaker and mentor. He was the first editor of "the immensely influential magazine" Creative Camera (1968–1969); and founder and editor of Album (1970–1971). He is the author of more than 20 books on the history and criticism of photography, and roughly 400 essays, lectures and articles. His own photographs have been widely published, including a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He is known for his portrait photographs of photographers.

Arthur (Usher) Fellig (June 12, 1899 – December 26, 1968), known by his pseudonym Weegee, was a photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography in New York City. Weegee worked in Manhattan's Lower East Side as a press photographer during the 1930s and 1940s and developed his signature style by following the city's emergency services and documenting their activity. Five of his photographs were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1943. He was later included in "50 Photographs by 50 Photographers", another MoMA show organized by photographer Edward Steichen. Weegee can be seen as the American counterpart to Brassaï, who photographed Paris street scenes at night. Weegee's themes of nudists, circus performers, freaks and street people were later taken up and developed by Diane Arbus in the early 1960s.

Jay was born in Maidenhead, England, attended grammar school and completed two years at Berkshire College of Art. Jay was editor of the hobbyist Camera Owner which he transformed into "the immensely influential magazine" Creative Camera (1968–1969); and founder and editor of Album (1970–1971), for all twelve issues. To supplement working on Creative Camera, for short periods he was European manager of Globe Photos, an international picture agency, and picture editor of The Daily Telegraph Magazine. He was the first Director of Photography at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, in 1970 and founded and directed the Photo Study Centre there. Jay's snapshots provide momentary views of the demeanor, and in some instances the working methods, of multiple generations of photographers, including Weegee, Cornell Capa, Aaron Siskind, Barbara Crane, Larry Clark, Robert Heinecken, Duane Michals, and Mary Ellen Mark. But they also provide a sense of Jay himself, primarily through the inclusion of hand-written annotations on the prints. Jay describes, "The words which accompany each image were instant responses to the memories of the individuals triggered by the picture. They’re verbal snapshots. As such, they’re not contemplative, analytical, factual, or—necessarily—true. Like the snapshots themselves, the words are intended to provide personal glimpses through my personal—and therefore prejudiced—eye."
He joined the Royal Photographic Society in February 1972 and was visiting speaker and arranger of talks at the Society, as well as for local camera clubs and polytechnics throughout the UK.
In 1972 he moved to the United States to enrol at the University of New Mexico under Beaumont Newhall and Van Deren Coke. He graduated with an MA on the Victorian landscape photographer Francis Bedford. Afterward, he founded the Photographic Studies program at Arizona State University, where he was professor of art history and taught photography history and criticism for 25 years.
He gave hundreds of lectures on photography as a guest at colleges, universities, art schools and camera clubs in Britain, Europe and the United States.
His archive is held at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. See less