A Day Off

Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1974. 1st American Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. 9" x 10.25" Soft cover. 14 pp., 120 numbered B&W photographs. Covers are age toned and curled, creasing to corners, sticker to head of rear cover. In San Francisco on 18 February 1972 Tony Ray-Jones was told that he had an acute and rare form of leukaemia. He died in London at the Royal Marsden Hospital less than a month later. He was thirty years old. The pictures that he took, and what he had to say about photography: these are of singular importance. As eccentric as their subjects, surreal, hilarious, yet kindly and bittersweet, Tony Ray-Jones' photographs show the gentle madness that overtakes people when they feel they can relax and be their true selves. Born in England, he studied design at Yale and freelanced in the US. When he returned to England he looked afresh at English life and the result is A Day Off, the only collection of his work in book form. Pictured here with a sharp but compassionate eye, are people seriously, doggedly intent on leisure activities: at the seashore, at carnivals, at horse and dog shows, at folk festivals, dances, beauty contests, and at Ascot and Eton--all relaxing at a furious clip.