#MondayMasters: Tony Ray Jones
Welcome to MondayMasters, a weekly challenge to find, share and explain a photo of a master of photography. This week, David Barrett of UK Street Photography [Check his site out] suggested Tony Ray Jones.
Who was Tony Ray Jones
Tony Ray Jones stidied graphic design (pre-photoshop) but ended up getting a scholarship to Yale because of his photography. He spent the early 1960 in America working for some New York photographers and got in with the New York Street photographers. In 1965 he moved back to the UK until his early death in 1970.
During this time he laid the groundwork for UK street photographers like Martin Parr, who you can spot Tony’s influence in Martin’s work. One of my favourite quotes from Tony is
My Photo Pick: Derby Day
I chose this picture mainly due to a personal connection. Epsom is very close to where I went to school and I had many friends who lived there. I spend some time around the racecourse and so this photo really appealed to me.
This is a great use of different layers in a photo with the dog in the foreground, the main figures of the gentleman and woman in opposing colours and then the background of the gentleman and workers. There are lots of elements but they have good separation (some elements could be better in a dream world) plus the phone booth and horse add a real element of localisation to the Derby day.
I feel this does a great job of placing the viewer in the location and glancing a window into the even.
Share your #MondayMasters
If you want to join in with #MondayMasters, share your favourite image of Tony Ray Jones with perhaps an explanation why you choose it on either a blog post or Twitter. Also check out Yuri, Maria, Jeremie and David’s choices and follow the #MondayMasters hashtag.
Originally published at Chris J Wilson.
