el

It really isn’t that far from 190 Bowery, on the corner of Spring St and Bowery in Manhattan, to Pacific Avenue in the upper scale neighbourhood of Cobble Hill in Brooklyn, but they couldn’t be more different The common thread that runs between the two is photographer Jay Maisel Maisel and his studio/residence, the 35,000 sq. ft., six story, 72 room former Germania Bank building were icons of the art scene in New York’s lower east side from 1966 when he bought it for approximately $100,000 until 2019 when he sold it to developer Aby Rosen for $55 million dollars. The trauma/adventure/relief of leaving The Bank was captured by his former assistant/protégé Stephen Wilkes in the feature length documentary Jay Myself. Wilkes did a masterful job of capturing what it was like to have to pack up and move all Jay’s stuff while capturing the melancholy emotions that come from leaving behind a place that held so many memories and which was really an extension of the man himself.

At 92, Jay Maisel is as sharp as he ever was and has probably forgotten more about photography than many people will ever know. There is something special about having a conversation with someone who was respected by so many other great photographers of his era. Terry Tinkess, copyright 2023.

Author’s note: It would be impossible to capture everything about Jay Maisel in an article of this length If you would like to read more, you are welcome to visit my blog which lives on my website (terrytinkessphotography.com) for the entirety of the interview

Maisel is a legend in the photographic industry, actively shooting for nearly 60 years He began his photography career in 1954 and he is perhaps best known for capturing the light, gesture and color found in everyday life His commercial accomplishments include five Sports Illustrated swimsuit covers, the first two covers of New York Magazine, the cover of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (the best-selling jazz album of all time), as well as twelve years of advertising campaign assignments with United Technologies, and too many awards to list He was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame in 2020

At 92, he spends most of his time curating his massive archive of photos, releasing various collections on his website (jaymaisel com) on pretty much a weekly basis, with the assistance of his friend and assistant Jeffrey Chong.

I have been a devoted fan of Jay Maisel and his work for many years and have even had the honour of meeting him and his wife Linda (commonly referred to as L.A. (just like the city in California) during an invitation only showing of his work along with that of Stephen Wilkes at New York’s PhotoPlus Expo in October 2019. He says that the most important part of photography is learning to see, and I have stressed that in every photography class I have taught for the past 16 years

I had hoped someday to have the opportunity to visit his new studio and interview him, so knowing that I had a trip to New York planned for early April, I reached out to see if that was even a possibility. You can only imagine my surprise when he called me to say sure, as long as I didn’t mind cigar smoke (He has been a life-long cigar afficionado ) I said I would expect nothing less Maisel, even at 92 casts a long shadow, and it is easy to understand how he might intimidate many an art director, back in the day, but when he is holding court, as he was this day, the twinkle in his eye left no doubt as to who was controlling this interview, and that he intended to enjoy it, and to make me sweat, so fasten your seatbelt and hold on

The most difficult part of this interview for me as trying to come up with original questions I have read so much and watched so many videos about him that I already had a great deal of background info I tried to think of questions he might not have been asked, and if I was not quite quick enough, he would interject If there was any question who was running this interview, it disappeared very quickly around the 30-minute mark.

“I’m waiting for you to says something intelligent, ” said Maisel.

“You may wait a very long time, or so I’m told, ” I responded, meeting his gaze.

“You know, I don’t take many visitors, ” he said “The trouble was interviews, and I usually say this at the beginning of the interview, but I gave you a break. The trouble with interviews is you're only as intelligent as your interviewer I’m in deep shit!”

And away we go

There was graffiti at The Bank even when Jay Maisel lived there, but there was also an understanding: “We always used to consider two things inviolate: you cannot do it on the windows because we'll clean it off the next day, and you can't do it on a granite column because they’re really too beautiful Terry Tinkess, copyright 2023

We covered many topics, some personal, some professional. He is extremely proud of his daughter, Amanda

“My daughter, as I said, she takes photographs, lots and lots of photographs She's not trying to become a photographer. Looked at that wall, (pointing about half-way down the south wall of his studio) and the one thing there is a white piece of paper that is her law degree. But she photographs an awful lot and sometimes when I'm feeling very, very decrepit, and I say, “Come on, give me a fucking break, ” and she looks at me and she says, “Paybacks a bitch, isn’t it?”

“Does she take more after you or L A , ” I asked

“Intelligence, L A , other things, me ”

Maisel was never known as a “technical photographer” , in fact some of his assistants apparently spoke about his propensity to shoot EKE (every known exposure). Since much of his work was done pre-digital, this led to a massive number of slides being culled. “I did shoot every known exposure, ” he said “I tried everything I’ve thrown away about two and a half million pictures.”

The new owners of 190 Bowery have apparently given up on the fight against graffiti, and the building sits empty, absent Jay Maisel, his family and friends who helped breathe life into it for so many years Terry Tinkess, copyright 2023

Maisel has been a Nikon shooter for much of his career, so I asked him if he had any thoughts about all the technological changes that were happening lately “I didn’t follow it when I was photographing, so why would I follow it now? He said. “The camera you use, is whatever you are comfortable with If you're so comfortable that you think the camera is running you, that'd be a good camera to use because you don't have to worry about anything technical.

“I really was a technical idiot, no, I was I still am, as far as I know But I know people who are more concerned with the camera than what they're shooting. What’s the point?”

Maisel has a question he used to ask his students when they started a session together: Which do you prefer, photographing or photographs, choose one He clearly understood that it is not a pursuit for everyone. I asked if he had any words of wisdom for anyone contemplating a career in photography

“Well, they can’t be very wise, ” said Maisel “I would never encourage anybody to become a photographer. But contrasted with that, I would say that for the rest of your life, find something that you want to not retire from It may not be photography, but it should be something that you love If you love photography, God bless you, figure out how to do it.” After nearly two hours, and after prodding every possible question out of me, Maisel asked “Got enough?” I told him I did, thanked both him and Jeffery, and left for the walk back to the subway Before I left, I took one last look around the studio, confirming my belief that we each leave our mark on the world, but some leave more of a mark than others. For that we should be grateful, because in their saying “Hey, look at this, ” they help us to understand that taking the time to see, really see what is in front of us makes all the difference.

A brush with

Light In The Dark

Text by J Childs with images from Bruce Hendriks and J Childs

Image 1 - this Merit image 'Swerve' was create in a single exposure with minimal post processing (image by J Childs)

The darkness surrounds you until the light shatters the night. The moving lights create patterns and streaks that your eye can see for only a brief instant before the darkness returns At these times, you are a ‘painter’ , working on the ‘canvas’ that is the night with your brushes of light

What is light painting? Sometimes called ‘light drawing’ or ‘light graffiti, ’ it is a form of long exposure photography – a style of image creation - that allows the artist to create a unique incamera effect whereby light is introduced into a dark scene from an often-handheld light source Instead of simply capturing the world, the existing light, light painters use the strategic addition or exclusion of light to highlight or create features, shapes or focal points The strategic and purposeful movement of a light source (e.g. a flashlight, glow stick, sparkler, fire), allows the artist to add another element to the final image which in many cases resembles the movement of a painters brush on canvas, hence the term ‘light painting’ The results can be dramatic, powerful, and visually spectacular and will be unlike anything you will see with your naked eye because you don’t see the shot - until the shutter closes

Image 2'Slither' was an accepted image that was created in a single exposure with minimal post processing (image by J Childs)

There are three main types of light painting The first is where the light is used as the “subject” of the image and the light source is used to introduce new elements - paint streaks, draw lines, create flashes or swirls, or to write text. In this method, the artist typically wears dark nonreflective clothing and is in the frame moving the light source to create the desired elements in their image Think about this technique as a child using a sparkler or glow stick to create patterns in the night sky around the campfire which are recorded by your camera. In the second method, a light source is introduced into the frame in a position that is not visible to the camera to highlight or ‘paint’ specific “subjects” within the frame of the image. An example of this would be a milky way photo with an old log cabin in the foreground which is ‘painted’ with a flashlight from the side of the camera to illuminate it in the final image In the third method, the artist moves the camera to create the desired effect. For example, if you zoomed the lens out or back, panned the camera from side to side or simply opened the shutter and moved the camera around while pointing it at a streetlight or the moon, so that the light source created a light trail on the final image

Tips to try on your next light painting session

Wear dark non-reflective clothing

Try different flashlights (e g colour and brightness)

Shine the light at different angles and heights

Keep the light moving

Bring your friends

Shoot at different times eg darkness vs blue hour

There are a wide spectrum of techniques that are used to create light painting images 1) Many light painters take pride in creating the entirety of their final image in a real time single exposure and advocate for sharing the image straight out of camera as an unaltered file. 2) Another group of light painters use post processing software but limit its use and thereby maintain the image as close to straight out of camera as possible (Images 1-3). 3) There are still other creators that will use light painting techniques to create a series of images (e g ~10-100) that are then combined in editing software to create or build an entirely new final composite image. An example of this technique (Figure 4) was created by PPOC member, Bruce Allen Hendriks In Bruce's image, the fighter jet called “F104 Starfighter AKA The Widow Maker, and it was a finalist in 2022 for Best Editorial

Award in Canada, was among the top 10 commercial images in PPA, was also a Grand Imaging

Award Finalist in PPA as well as was part of Team Canada for the 2023 World Photographic Cup Other examples of his work can be seen at his website for ‘Art in the Dark’ .

Light painting is an accessible technique for all photographers It can be applied in a range of other types of photography such as portrait, wedding, product and landscape photography. Although it introduces a little or a lot of uncertainty and experimentation, it is a whole lot of fun to express yourself, your imagination, and your creativity.