Last night I received a bit of a shock to hear that Bill Jay had passed away earlier this year. I found this out when I received my latest issue of LensWork, which is entirely devoted to the words of Bill Jay, 90 pages worth. For those LensWork readers out there you know that at least half of LensWorks’ pages are typically filled with photos. Which makes this issue, and the man it honors, that much more special.
For nearly the last 10 years, Jay had contributed the regular column EndNotes to LensWork. Two pages of random thoughts on or somehow related to photography; the last two pages of the issue, hence the name. Before his retirement, he sent LensWork a number of pages of one or two sentence quotes he called Textstrips, We’re lucky to still get to hear from Bill for a few more issues through his Textstrips.
While I never had the pleasure of meeting Bill Jay, I have been a long time reader of his writings and know that they have influenced my photography and thoughts about photography.
For those who want to expose themselves to Bill Jay’s thoughts on photography, I highly encourage you:
- explore some of his Essays and Articles archived on his website
- pickup a few of his books
- peruse quotes from Bill Jay on the FocalPower Photo Quotes Archive
Thanks for contributing so much to the discussion Bill Jay!