About the Artist
From the moment Jay picked up his first “real” camera, Rock & Roll photography became an important part of his world. One of the first shows he ever shot was back in the mid-1960s at a small Dallas coffeehouse called The Rubaiyat, where he tried to capture the legendary Lightnin’ Hopkins. Not long after, he found himself in the audience at a Jimi Hendrix concert, camera in hand, and quickly learned the golden rule of concert photography: get closer. Those early, not-so-perfect shoots only made him more hooked on photographing music.
By the late ’60s through the ’70s and ’80s, Jay’s list of artists grew: The Who, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Sly & the Family Stone, Bob Seger, Chuck Berry, Janis Joplin, Procol Harum, Bob Dylan and The Band, the Sex Pistols—you name it. Photographing the Texas Pop Music Festival and plenty of Willie Nelson Picnics, all of which grew his archive and deepened his love for capturing music history.
Outside the concert world, Jay went on to win a Pulitzer Prize and build a long career
with National Geographic. His assignments have taken him everywhere—from living in a stone-age village in Papua New Guinea for three months, to spending a week under Arctic ice in a nuclear attack sub, to riding out a sinking boat on the Amazon.
Jay and his wife Becky founded the FirstLight Workshop series, hosting photography workshops all over the world, including Italy, Spain, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Mongolia, Botswana, Namibia, Laos, the Chesapeake, Alaska, and Wyoming. Through National Geographic Expeditions, Jay has traveled on more than 40 trips as the official “National Geographic Expert.”
Named by Travel + Leisure as one of the 10 most fascinating people to travel with, he’s also the co-author of the best-selling book Perfect Digital Photography, published by McGraw-Hill.
