Tony Ray-Jones (7 June 1941 – 13 March 1972) was an English photographer.

Life

Born Holroyd Anthony Ray-Jones in Wells, Somerset, he was the youngest son of Raymond Ray-Jones (1886–1942), a painter and etcher who died when Tony was only eight months old, and Effie Irene Pearce, who would work as a physiotherapist. After his father's death, Tony's mother took the family to Tonbridge in Kent, to Little Baddow (near Chelmsford, Essex), and then to Hampstead in London. He was educated at Christ's Hospital (Horsham), which he hated.

thumb|'Crufts Dog Show 1968' by Ray-Jones

Tony Ray-Jones studied at the London School of Printing, where he concentrated on graphic design. In the early 1960s he obtained a scholarship that enabled him to join Yale University School of Art on the strength of photographs he had taken in north Africa from a taxi window.

On his return to Britain, he was shocked at the lack of interest in non-commercial photography, let alone in the publication of books presenting it. He was also unsure of what subject he might pursue, but the idea of a survey of the English at leisure gradually took shape. He began work on that, at the same time doing portrait and other work for the Radio Times, Sunday newspapers, and magazines. and were included in his second unsuccessful submission to join Magnum Photos.

Critic Sean O'Hagan wrote in The Guardian:

<blockquote>Ray-Jones was in many ways a social anthropologist with a camera, but it is his eye for detail and often brilliantly complex compositions that sets him apart. His images often appear cluttered ... On closer inspection, though, what we are glimpsing is several small narratives contained in the bigger defining one."

Publications

  • A Day Off: An English Journal.
  • London: Thames & Hudson, 1974. Hardback .
  • London: Thames & Hudson, 1975. Paperback . Second edition.
  • A Day Off: 120 Photographs. Waterbury, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1977. Paperback .
  • Loisirs anglais: 120 photographies de Tony Ray Jones. Paris: Éditions du Chêne, 1974.<!-- no ISBN, it seems --> .
  • Tony Ray-Jones. Edited by Richard Ehrlich. Manchester: Cornerhouse, 1990. (paper); (cloth). Also New York, NY: Aperture, 1991 . Exhibition catalogue, includes biography and photographs.
  • Tony Ray-Jones. By Russell Roberts. London: Chris Boot, 2004. . Introduction by Russell Roberts; transcript of interview between Bill Jay and Martin Parr.
  • American Colour 1962–1965. London: Mack, 2013. . Introduction by Liz Jobey.
  • Only in England: Photographs by Tony Ray-Jones. Bradford: National Science and Media Museum, 2013. . . Exhibition catalogue. Introductions by Hannah Redler and Greg Hobson, essays by Martin Parr, David Alan Mellor and Ian Walker. The photographs are grouped into 'The English Unseen: Tony Ray-Jones Photographs Newly Selected by Martin Parr' and 'The English Seen: Classic Tony Ray-Jones Photographs'.
  • Tony Ray-Jones. RRB/Martin Parr Foundation, 2019. With an introduction by Martin Parr and an essay by Liz Jobey.
  • French-language edition. Paris: Maison CF, 2019.

Exhibitions (incomplete)

  • Current Report 2, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1968. With others.
  • Vision and Expression, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, 1969
  • Tony Ray-Jones. Touring exhibition organised by the Photographers' Gallery, 1990
  • A 'father and son' exhibition for Raymond and Tony Ray-Jones, the Astley Cheetham Art Gallery, Ashton-under-Lyne, England, 1996
  • A Gentle Madness: The Photographs of Tony Ray-Jones (1941–72), National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford, England, 2004; and toured to Rencontres d'Arles, 2004; Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, 2005.
  • Les Rencontres d'Arles festival, France, 2004
  • The Guernsey Photography Festival, 2011
  • Mass Photography: Blackpool through the Camera, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, England, 2011
  • Only in England: Photographs by Tony Ray-Jones and Martin Parr, Media Space, Science Museum, London, 19 September 2013 – 16 March 2014; National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, 28 March – 29 June 2014; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 13 February – 7 June 2015. With material from the National Science and Media Museum's Ray-Jones archive curated by Martin Parr and Greg Hobson.

Commissioned magazine work

  • "Passport to Cornwall", Sunday Times Magazine, 25 September 1966 V.I. No. 29/30, 1966.
  • "The Island", Cycle magazine, October 1967.
  • "Britten Country", Opera News, 11 February 1967.
  • "Manplan 8", Architectural Review, September 1970.
  • "Happy Extremists", Sunday Times Magazine, 18 October 1970.
  • "The All American Love Nest", Sunday Times Magazine, 28 March 1971.
  • "The Air Conditioned Zion", Sunday Times Magazine, 21 November 1971.
  • "There's thirteen hundred and fifty-two guitar-pickers in Nashville...", Sunday Times Magazine, 22 February 1972.

Other images by Ray-Jones are in the Robert Elwall Photographs Collection, British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London.

See also

  • Martin Parr

References

  • The Golden Fleece: Tony Ray-Jones and his legacy by Roy Hammans
  • The English Seen by Liz Jobey at The Guardian, 2004, on the occasion of the opening of "A Gentle Madness: The Photographs of Tony Ray-Jones (1941–72)" at the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford
  • Gallery of photographs at The Guardian in 2011
  • Tony Ray-Jones 1941–1972 Book of black-and-white photographs
  • Tony Ray-Jones American Colour 1962–1965 Selected colour photographs