Jay Maisel is considered with Ernst Haas, Art Kane, Pete Turner, as one of the great masters of color photography. When I joined PHOTO, in the last century, they were the absolute stars. They loved PHOTO because in addition to its fame, the magazine offered them for each double portfolio of 16 pages, 1st class Air France tickets New York – Paris. A brilliant trick that our pub manager had found!
Jay at that time lived in a historic building on the Lower East side: the Germania Bank at 190 Bowery. Built in 1899, it consisted of 72 rooms over 33,000m2 and 6 floors. The 2nd and 3rd floors served as a gallery and the vaults housed the negatives.
It was probably one of the seediest neighborhoods in New York. The first time I went to his house for dinner, I had to step over 5 bums paralyzed by alcohol and drugs.
He had bought this place in 1966 for $100,000 he sold it 3 years ago for 55 million.
We will regularly publish some of Jay Maisel’s most distinctive portfolios.
Jean Jacques Naudet
I’ve photographed the earth from the air. The only things that looked like it belonged there are trees.
Jay Maisel
