My Photographic Heros no 3: Tony Ray-Jones
AuthorPostedbyTony Ray-Jones
For me Tony Ray-Jones with his exploration of the English eccentricities was really influential, he made black and white images mostly. That is what he concentrated on when he came back from America, where he had practiced his street photography with colour. He studied with Alexi Brodovitch and worked the streets of New York with Joel Meyerowitz and Garry Winogrand. So he was a connected photographer, who was hard on himself to make himself a better photographer. He used a Leica camera and a wide angle lens, I’m not exactly sure of the focal length, but because of the depth of field and compression objects within the image, I would guess either a 28mm or 35mm lens, was his choice of lens.
I like how he observed the world and put elements together to make juxtapositions of meaning within the frame.
YouTube videos with and about Tony Ray Jones
Vimeo video on Tony Ray-Jones
In conversation: Joel Meyerowitz and Greg Hobson from Media Space on Vimeo.
What I learnt from Tony Ray-Jones
To wait, get closer, be hard on self and don’t give in to the easy image. Keep working till you get what you want. That dedication to the image is important, to make good work. Don’t be to easy on yourself, then get up and go back again to make more images, till you get what you need.
Links to articles on his work
Lensculture has a nice little gallery of his Back and White work that makes the case for why I view him as in influence in photography. https://www.lensculture.com/articles/tony-ray-jones-tony-ray-jones-1941-1972
Books by/on Tony Ray Jones
Tony Ray-Jones by Russel Roberts, (Amazon US link), (Amazon UK link).
