Though actually not a practicing photographer, art
historian and critic Bill Jay often takes pictures as an adjunct to his
writings. While working on a series of articles about American photographers,
Jay visited the documentary photographer Weegee in his New York apartment. Best
known for his candid and spontaneous photojournalistic images routinely published in New
York newspapers during
the 1930s and 1940s, Weegee had slipped into virtual anonymity by 1968 when Jay
last met with him. The portrait resulting from the interview is conversational
and brutally honest, photographed with an intensity that belies the
unexceptional purpose of the visit. The picture and the words that accompany it
poignantly and pointedly reveal Jay's personal reaction to the wrenching reality
he had witnessed.