An Interview with the Legendary Jay Maisel

Photograph ©Chris Callis who photographed Jay in 1982, swimming in his rejected slides for the cover of American Photographer Magazine.

Jay Maisel was a lifelong Nikon photographer, although, as this interview makes clear, equipment was always secondary to what he saw and how he saw it. In 2011, I sat down with Jay while working on a book about the Nikon system. I have my own unusually deep attachment to Nikon, perhaps because its cameras have given me so many extraordinary moments throughout my life, but the book was never completed. I still hope it might be someday. With Jay’s passing, I returned to this conversation, which has remained unseen until now.

Reading it again, I’m struck by how clearly his voice comes through. He was direct, funny, impatient with nonsense and never especially interested in equipment for its own sake. Yet his thoughts about cameras and lenses inevitably became thoughts about seeing: what we notice, what gets in the way and how the tools we carry can either free us or weigh us down.

There are stories here that even longtime admirers of Jay’s work may not know, along with a few surprises. He talks about the cameras he loved, the ones he resisted, the equipment he lost or dropped into the sea, and why he believed the camera itself had been designed upside down. Beneath the humor was a photographer who knew what mattered to him and spent a lifetime learning how to remain open to the unexpected.

Jay inspired generations of photographers, including me. His photographs showed us what can happen when we slow down and truly pay attention. So did the way he moved through the world. He looked carefully and remained curious. He trusted light, gesture, color and chance, reminding us that photography begins with how we see, long before we press the shutter.

I’m grateful we had this conversation, and sorry it took his passing for me to return to it. I share it now as a small tribute to Jay and to the lasting influence he had on so many of us who care deeply about photography.

Steve S. So this thing I’m doing is on the Nikon system and it’s called the Nikon Dream System.

Jay M. You know I’m not a technical guy.

Steve S. No, you don’t have to be.  This is more about philosophy and stuff. Do you remember what your first camera was?

Jay M. The first camera I ever used was a borrowed Kodak 35...and the second camera was a Kine Exakta, which I borrowed from Buckminster Fuller.  The third camera that I remember was a Miranda. I’ve been shooting since 1954. I got my first Nikon when they first made it the year the Nikon F came out, 1959. I still have 16 Nikon F’s. I’ve shot 8x10, 4x5, I’ve shot 120. I’ve shot panoramic cameras that weren’t Nikon but with 35mm it has always been Nikon. I bought a Canon once and I returned it the next day. I bought a Rolleiflex once and returned that the next day.  

Steve S. What is your Nikon system philosophy, I know your mantra to a certain degree is “one camera, one lens – you’re going to shoot more.”  But when you build a system or when you were building your system, how did you go about it?

Jay M. When I started I had four major lenses. It was a 50mm Nikon, a 90mm Macro that didn’t have anything to do with Nikon. A 180mm Olympic Sonar from Zeiss and a 300mm Sonar from Zeiss.  Those were my major lenses.  And then Nikon came out with the 180 and I bought that and other lenses as they came out.  But I used that system for a very long time. Do you want to talk about non-Nikon stuff?   

Steve S. Sure.

Jay M. I also had configured my stuff so that I could use the 180, the 90 and the 300 on my Hasselblad with a minor modification so I could switch them from one to the other. I liked the Hasselblad 1000 F’s; you could put any lens on it so I had the advantage of using whatever the hell I wanted. But I was shooting Hasselblad because I did a lot of album covers, square format.  

There was one particular incident that made me give up the Hasselblad.  I wasn’t shooting albums anymore I was doing advertising and this art director said to me, “I want you to shoot this 120.”  

I said “we’re shooting fucking here to here. Think. 120’s going to be a ball-breaker to do that.” I mean, I can get a pentaprism so I’m not looking down, but still, it’d be easy to shoot the 35 and you’d get better quality.  “No, no, I want 120,” he said. 

Anyway, I shot the job 120 and 35 and when I showed him the 35 he wouldn’t look at the 120.  And so that was pretty much the last time I used 120 for professional purposes. From that time on it was 99% Nikon.

Steve S. Were you quick to adopt new Nikon stuff as it came out?

Jay M. Oh yeah. Here’s a point. When Nikon came out with the Nikon F2, I wouldn’t get it.  Because I felt it was too much electronics in it.  And so I kept going with my F.  When they came out with the F3, Marty Forsher put his foot down and said, “I can’t repair these fucking things anymore. You have beat the shit of them.  It’s just too tough to repair them.”  

So I have about 16 Fs, I had no F2s. I have eight F3s.  About four/five F4s and one F5.  And by the time the D1 came and I was into the digital.

Steve S. Before we get into the whole digital thing and the D1 and beyond, just getting back to your original system, I think it was three or four lenses you mentioned.  As your career and your photography progressed, what were some of the other acquisitions in terms of Nikon lenses that you got that you really kind of fell in love with?

Jay M. Well, the 300 f2.8, the 600 F4, the 200 F2, the – later on the zoom lenses, the really good zoom lenses.  I started with the first zoom lens they ever made, the 43-86, didn’t like it, there was a quality about it that wasn’t as much fun.  Anyway, I’m trying to think what other lenses I loved.  Well, I’ve always loved the 50s.  

Steve S. Which 50?

Jay M. Well, I had a number of 50 1.4s, and then I had the 58mm 1.2, and I may, but I’m not sure about this, I may have had a 55 in there but I may be wrong.  I don’t know if it was.  

Steve S. There were a lot of long telephotos that you describe early on.  What is it that attracted you, I mean, I know in your work that you do use telephotos.  

Jay M. Don’t forget the 1000.

Steve S. Tell me about that.  What was it, the 1000 F-11 mirror?

Jay M. No, I had a 1000 F6.3. Nikon doesn’t know about this. They’re too young. I had a big argument with the Nikon people when they came here because I said I had a Nikon F6.3 with a diaphragm on a catadioptric (mirror) lens . 

They said no, they never made diaphragms on catadioptric lenses. 

“Want to put money on it?” I said. And when I showed it to them they said maybe you’d like to give this to our museum.  I said maybe you’d like to talk about money.  Anyway ...

Steve S. Well, tell me about that lens.  How did you get it?  Why did you get it?

Jay M. It had been rented out a lot by Sports Illustrated and Life.  At some point they said if anyone wants to buy it...so I bought it.  There’s also a 1000mm Maksutov, the Russian one I use. 

I then traded all my Aeroflex equipment to Steven Wilkes in return for the Nikon 2000 F11; still have that. He wanted to try film, so we did a trade. I could shoot from all around the building here with the 2000mm, and his only window faced a white brick wall, so, you know.  

Steve S. Did you end up with a lot of images you really love from that lens?

Jay M. Not a lot because you can’t shoot that much with it. If you’re shooting in the city you can only shoot it about a dozen days a year it’s either too hot--too much heat coming from the building, or it’s too cold.  With a movie camera it’s nice to have that shimmer but on a still camera, it just looks out of focus.  

Steve S. You work with telephoto lenses a lot.

Jay M. Well, you have more control with a telephoto over what you’re looking at.  As you put on a wide angle, you acquire the responsibility for a lot of real estate.

Steve S. Understood.  So you like the fact that you could compose the way you want it.

Jay M. Well, first of all I don’t use the word “compose.” Compose is only relevant if you’re controlling what’s going on in front of you. What you’re talking about is framing, and cropping.  It’s just easier with a telephoto. There is a tendency for each photographer to find a way of looking at things that he’s comfortable with.  I love what’s in the center of my pictures and the more I can get to the center, the less I’m involved in peripheral.  If I’m involved in peripheral, then I’m thinking in terms of panoramic camera.  

Steve S. I suspect when zooms started to improve it was liberating for someone like you who liked telephoto lenses.  

Jay M. Well, the real liberating thing was the recent lens they came out with, the 28-300.  That lens changed a lot of things for me. Before that I was walking around with a belly bag. My daughter said “you look like such a dork with that thing.”  

And I would very rarely change for the 24-70mm lens that was in the belly bag, because of inertia and the fact that I don’t see in terms of wide angle. I’m basically a very lazy person. I’m not pro-active, I’m very reactive. So if it’s easy for me, I’ll use it. Before that, I was working the 70-300mm and the 24-70mm.  When they came out with the 28-300mm it just made life a lot, lot better. With a 70-300, anything below 70mm, I had to change. It’s inertia. So now I shoot with 28mm; I shoot with 50mm; whatever’s appropriate. 

Steve S. I think some photographers might be surprised because both the 70-300mm and the 28-300mm are not very expensive lenses.

Jay M. No, but they’re very good lenses. Sharper than hell.

Steve S. So, they’re sharp enough for you.

Jay M. They’re not sharp enough, they’re sharper than any other lenses I’ve used.  There may be a lot of lenses that are sharper that I don’t know about, but the way I perceive it, it’s a very sharp lens.

Steve S. I want to know what you’ve got in your Nikon system.  What you can go to.  Now obviously you’ve mentioned the 2000.

Jay M. I can go from a 14mm to a 2000mm. I got what I need. I’m not a collector of equipment.  I have it because at some point it was fun to get that lens. If you’re asking what I’m using, I’m using the 28-300mm, that’s it. I’m not using other lenses. I mean sometimes I’ll pick up a macro lens that I want to fool around with something close, sometimes I’ll pick up a longer telephoto but basically, when I go out on the street it’s 28-300mm, that’s it.

Steve S. So your system is a holdover from your commercial assignment days?

Jay M. I felt an obligation to my client to be able to respond to any situation in any way I could. Now, I’m just shooting for myself. 

Steve S. Tell me about your transition to Nikon digital.

Jay M. Sam Garcia forced the D1 into my hands and said “I know you don’t like it, but try it.”  And from that time on, that was it. I have shot in the last 10 years three rolls of film.  All in the first two weeks.  No going back for me.  

Steve S. So, if Sam had not insisted, you really were not that interested...

Jay M. No.  I wouldn’t have – I hate new cameras because then I’ve got to learn about them and I’m slow learning about them and fumbled fingers and left-fitted and I just don’t pick up things easily.  So every time Nikon comes out with a new camera I have mixed emotions. Oh shit, a new camera, it’s much better, but I got to learn it. 

Steve S. Right. So tell me about that early shooting experience with the D1, what was you initial reaction?

Jay M. Oh, I loved it. I loved that I could see what I was getting. I loved the fact that the lenses that I put on actually seemed longer than they were. There was nothing I didn’t like about it. I never looked back.

Steve S. We’ve come so far in 10 years. 

Jay M. Here, I’ll give you something. Without doing the math, how many years do you think it was between the first flight at Kitty Hawk and landing on the moon?

Steve S. Ahhhh....110?

Jay M. 60, 1909 to 1969.  

Steve S. Wow.

Jay M. So we do sometimes progress quickly.  I don’t measure the D1 against the D3S.  I measure the camera that Kodak gave me to use in 1992 that required them sending out a guy to carry the Diehard battery with it.  And it took eight pictures in black and white. I was always reluctant to try new equipment. I was never about equipment. Guys would love the joy of working with new equipment. I was fucking terrified of new equipment. I certainly don’t like to try anything new and I can’t read instruction booklets.

Jay M. There are other areas that I can shoot that I couldn’t shoot in before. Very simply, I can shoot at night. And I can shoot in low light levels. I guess I feel freer now than I ever have before in what I’m able to shoot. The day is much longer than it used to be because I never shot at night, unless I wanted to do a very specific thing. Because if I had film in the camera at the end of the day, a half a roll left, I wasn’t going to throw that half a roll away just on the chance that maybe I would take a shot at night.  

Steve S.  What camera are you using now?

Jay M. The D3S. Sometimes I use the focus where I hit the first thing. I don’t know the name for it. And sometimes I use it on one thing that moves around.

Steve S. Okay, the dynamic, not the 3D thing?

Jay M. Yeah.  I don’t know the names. I got a headache even talking about it. I always use auto focus.  I use auto everything until I see that it doesn’t know what I want and then I have to go to manual. I think there’s an ego among some photographers where there’s “I’m in control.” I have that ego, too, to a certain point, but I’m in control of what I want to photograph. I’m in control of what I’m going to use because I know what I want my aperture to be. As far as focus goes, if I want to focus differently than the auto, I do.  But walking along the street basically I have no idea what I’m going to be interested in. It can handle it much faster than I could. I never ever used manual focus as soon as there was an autofocus.

Steve S. So you could concentrate on your subject, rather than worrying about the technical so much.

Jay M. Yeah.

Steve S. What about video?

Jay M. I fool around a little bit. I’m not interested in it that much. When my kid was born, I bought a motion picture camera which I gave to my wife and said here, I really want to do the still pictures. She never used it. Her excuse was that she was a mother and she was doing that.  And of course she was absolutely right.  So I shot a little bit, a very, very little bit with it.  And what I have is just incredibly precious because we didn’t have a voice or anything in still pictures. But I’m not sorry because I really like shooting stills. But it doesn’t mean I won’t shoot videos in the future. Right now, it doesn’t hit me that much.

Steve S. What advice would you have in terms of building a Nikon System?

Jay M. I don’t have any advice for anybody, I’m sorry.  I’m not the advice guy on equipment. I would say shoot as much as you want and shoot with as little equipment as you can.  You walk around with a pack, all your energy goes to carrying the shit.

Steve S. What do you think is on the horizon for Nikon shooters?  Do you have any expectations for what’s coming or what you’d like to see?

Jay M. I saw Bill Pekela in Wyoming.  He called me over.  “If you keep talking to our senior engineers about how the camera’s built upside down I will have you killed.” 

I said the camera is built wrong. It always has been built wrong.  It will be corrected 50 years from now and I want credit for it because I’m the only one that makes a big thing of it. The camera’s built upside down. Look. Here’s the camera, right?  There’s the lens right? Look where the lens is in relation to the table. Okay? Now turn the camera upside down; look where the lens is in relation to the table. The lens is higher. When you come down here it’s that much lower. You’re gaining five inches.  

Maybe this will make it easier to understand. Let’s say for example the camera was five feet high and the lens was down here. What would happen if you turned that camera upside down? The lens would be five feet higher. So when you’re shooting it this way, you’re shooting at some guy’s feet. When you’re shooting it this way, you’re shooting at a head. With our cameras instead of five feet it’s five inches. That is my major complaint, but that’s with every camera.

Steve S. If you were on a step that would let you shoot five inches higher, it would be the same, right? Being up five inches. A better perspective to be shooting from and  the opposite of today’s camera design. 

Jay M. It’ll make you five inches taller.

Steve S. Okay, I get it. Alright maybe somebody will take your advice on that

Jay M. Not in my lifetime. 

Steve S. Any other ideas?

Jay M. At one point I said to somebody at Nikon, “why are you screwing around with all these slow lenses?  We need speed.”  And now that I have such a high ISO I understand why they’re doing the slow lenses.  Whether it was planned ahead, independent or just complete luck, I don’t know, but it has worked out for me. I now walk around with an F5.6 lens.  I never put on my 50mm f1.4.  I just like having the depth of change from 28 to 300mm.  

Steve S. What about the bokeh of say the 200mm F2...  

Jay M. Yeah, I like that. But you change as a photographer. The out-of-focus telephoto shot is a lot of fun but it’s not as much of a challenge.  And I do want to challenge myself so for me the challenge is to use a wide angle lens. The difficulty is in 35mm.  I believe that karma is telling me not to use a 35mm lens ever, because I’ve gone through about seven of them.

Steve S. Really?

Jay M. Off the tops of buildings, rolling into San Francisco Bay, lost by assistants, left in taxicabs.  There’s something about 35mm lenses that doesn’t like me.

Steve S. Got you.  They try and escape.  

Jay M. They try and escape.  

Steve S. Have you had other bad things happen where you’ve lost major stuff  while shooting?  

Jay M. Oh, I’ve lost major stuff.  I don’t have anything where they survived.  They survived dropping and stuff like that but I was photographing for Sports Illustrated on the bathing suit edition.  I was photographing Cheryl Tiegs and I was barefoot.  I was in the water with her and I stepped on a sea urchin. I had three cameras and I went down with all three.  Fortunately, I brought six with me.

Steve S. Wow. So you were okay; she was okay?

Jay M. She was fine, she laughed.

Steve S. Did you get a shot of her as you were falling?

Jay M. No, no.  

Steve S. Okay, so obviously you’ve got to have, sort of, the backup when you’re working on a job. 

Jay M. Not now.  Now I just have one camera.  

Steve S. Did Nikon surprise you with this new 28mm-300mm?

Jay M. Oh, I was just knocked apart by that. When they told me that they had a 70-300mm I was amazed. And when they told me they had a 28-300mm, well this one will probably be a compromise because, but it wasn’t. It’s unbelievably sharp.

Jay Maisel Trivia

• Before becoming a photographer, Jay studied painting and graphic design at Cooper Union and Yale, where he earned his BFA in 1953.
• Jay practiced karate and reportedly placed second in the 1963 North American Karate Championships at Madison Square Garden.
• While studying at Yale, he worked with Buckminster Fuller and a group of student artists and architects on models and geodesic structures.
• Jay photographed the first two covers of New York Magazine, including its inaugural issue in April 1968.
• He photographed five Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue covers. His first, featuring Sue Peterson, appeared in 1965, one year after the magazine introduced its annual swimsuit issue.
• His photograph of Miles Davis performing at the Apollo Theater became the cover of the 1959 album Kind of Blue, widely recognized as the bestselling jazz album of all time.
• Jay bought the former Germania Bank building at 190 Bowery in 1966 for $102,000. It took roughly a year to clear it out before he began transforming its 72 rooms into his home, studio and archive where he and his family lived for nearly 50 years. 
• Artists Roy Lichtenstein and Adolph Gottlieb rented studio space from Jay and worked in the bank building for approximately two years.
• Jay lived and worked at 190 Bowery for nearly fifty years, continually filling its six floors with photographs, objects and things that caught his eye.
• After selling the building for $55 million in 2015, he had six months to move out. Emptying a lifetime’s accumulation took approximately five months of preparation and between 30 and 40 truckloads.

 

Here's a great Big Picture shot video on Jay Maisel.