74 23 November 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113Legends
of photography
I
t’s weird to think that
the images of Tony
Ray-Jones were once
considered ‘exotic’.
Looking at them now, the
above image for example,
Jones’s work fi ts exactly
into the model of what we
would think of when asked
to consider the aesthetic of
post-war British documentary
photography. And yet that
wasn’t always the case. The
fact is, the images of Ray-Jones
altered the face of documentary
photography in the UK. Their
infl uence spread quickly and
made an indelible impression
on every photographer thatTo n y
Ray-Jones
followed in his shadow.
Martin Parr has openly and
tirelessly championed the work
of the photographer and it’s
impossible not to place their
work side by side and see a clear
and undeniable lineage. This is
particularly impressive when
you consider that Ray-Jones
only operated as a photographer
for around a decade.
He was born in Somerset in
1941 and in the early 1960s
relocated to the US after
winning a scholarship at the
Yale University School of Art.
After winning some praise for
some photographs he’d taken
from the window of a taxi,Ray-Jones himself said, ‘There
is something very special about
the English “way of life” and I
wish to record it from my
particular point of view before
it becomes Americanised and
disappears.’ No one had
attempted to do this before.
And that’s why Ray-Jones is
such a crucial fi gure in the
history of British photography.
Sadly, Ray-Jones would never
experience success in his
lifetime. The English
photography scene wasn’t quite
ready for his groundbreaking
work. It beggars belief that he
applied to join Magnum and
was rejected not once but twice.
He quickly returned to the US
where he worked as a teacher at
the San Francisco Art Institute.
And then, just as quickly, he
died of leukaemia in 1971.
He didn’t live to see the release
of his book, A Day Off : An
English Journal, published by
Thames & Hudson in 1974.
He had no idea just how huge
an infl uence his work
would soon have.His work had an indelible impact on
the British post-war photography
scene, as Oliver Atwell reveals
Ray-Jones began working on
assignments for publications
such as Car and Driver and
TheSaturday Evening Post at
the age of just 19. However,
these projects felt a little too
commercial to him and he
began to get the itch to apply
his skills in more creative ways.Chance meeting
It was then that he worked
under the art director Alexey
Brodovitch in the Manhattan
studio of Richard Avedon. This
led to a chance meeting with
Garry Winogrand and Joel
Meyerowitz that helped
Ray-Jones develop his unique
approach to documentary
photography. During his time in
the US, he learned how to move
silently through the streets and
act as an invisible eye that
documented all he saw. In 1965,
with these skills under his belt,
he returned to England and
began his documentation of
the English way of life.
Ray-Jones’s work was unique
in his attempt to communicate
something of the strange spirit
and mentality of the English,
whether through their habits,
way of life or traditions. As© TONY RAY-JONES / BRADFORD MEDIA MUSEUM
© GETT Y IMAGES
Possibly Morecambe
c. 1967 by Tony
Ray-Jones‘The English Seen by Tony Ray-Jones’ is
currently showing at the Martin Parr Foundation,
Paintworks, Bristol until 21 December