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The RAC 5 – Jay B. Wilson
Jay became an Exhibiting Member at RAC shortly after moving to Cos Cob in 2012. An active volunteer with RAC, he currently serves as President of the Board of Directors. A photographer from an early age, Jay’s recent work focuses on capturing urban and suburban scenes at night. His photograph “Ghosts in the Machine,” made at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. at night, recently won the Photography Award at the Greenwich Art Society’s Annual Member’s exhibition. His work has been exhibited at Google’s NYC headquarters and as far away as Santa Monica, California.
What time of day do you feel most creative?
The night definitely brings out my creativity, and I find myself spending more and more time focusing on creating images after the sun goes down. Photography is a great medium for capturing mood and shadow, plus I love the mystery of the darkness and trying to capture it. Of course, night photography is technically more difficult – photography is the art of capturing light, and when there’s not a lot of it, that makes things difficult but I love trying to overcome those challenges!
Who are a few of your favorite artists?
There are so many, in different mediums, but let’s talk photographers. My first and original inspiration for photography was and remains Gregory Crewdson. He stages incredibly elaborate scenes of suburban angst and mystery – fragments of larger stories that are left to our imagination. I particularly love Brassai’s nighttime photography, as well as the work of Todd Hido, Alec Soth and Joel Sternfeld, who has an incredible exhibition at the Bruce Museum right now. And although they are quite different in terms of style and subject matter from what I shoot, I adore the work of Gillian Laub, Larry Sultan, Joni Sternbach, Nan Goldin, and Nick Waplington.
Do you listen to anything while you are working on your art?
When I’m out making photographs, I want to be fully focused on the sights and
sounds around me, so no music when I have camera in hand. However, I almost always have a song bouncing around my head as I shoot and always edit my photos with music in the background. When I post on my Instagram @jaybwilsonphoto, I almost always include song lyrics as a caption to the image – it links the photograph on the screen to the story in my mind about that photograph. My favorite musicians who evoke the vibe I’m going for in a lot of my photography include contemporaries like Jason Isbell, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Brandi Carlile, along with classics like the Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
What book are you reading?
I’ve been terrible about reading novels lately, but am currently working my way slowly through Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. More often, I’m indulging in the fantastic collection of photography books available through my local Greenwich Library system, which contains classics from Henri Cartier-Bresson though more contemporary work from Gillian Laub.
Tell me about your techniques for overcoming creative blocks
My biggest creative block is quite frankly the weather. I find it very difficult to get motivated to go out and shoot in the extreme cold, so I tend to shut down a bit over the winter. I have found that taking photography classes through Rowayton Arts Center is a great way to get motivated – Thom Williams’ Advanced Photography class forces you to go out and create work every week through the assignments he gives us.
Find out more about Jay: jaybwilsonphoto.com
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