Friday, March 9, 2007

Bill Jay's portraits of photographers




An image by Bill Jay of photographer Tom Barrow photographing with what looks to be a Polaroid on the edges of Albuqeruqe in 1973. Of course, in 1973, the edge of Albuquerque was Montgomery and San Mateo, he could be standing in the future site of my high school in this image.

Bill Jay has a terrific group of images of photographers on his site –

http://www.billjayonphotography.com/portraitsalphabetized.html

Amazing.

I always figured that the grad program at UNM in the 70’s must have been mind-blowing. I think this image just confirmed that.

When I took Tom's introduction to graduate studies course in 1994, I expected to be grilled over the coals of Derrida and Foucault. Instead, Tom really valued well-crafted, concise articles about contemporary art written in an articulate voice but unassuming language. At the time I felt kind of cheated, but I have grown to appreciate that position. Thanks, Tom - I haven't let my subscription of the New Yorker lapse since taking that class.

Come to think of it, that describes Bill Jay's writing style as well. Time to take a look at some of the essays on his site.

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