Sun in the Blood of the Cat

Our latest anthology of Bill Jay's writings on photography, Sun in the Blood of the Cat covers a wide range of topics, including reflections on the profession of teaching photography; advice on how (and whether) to select a graduate school for an MFA in photography; reminiscences of the author's days as editor of Album and Creative Camera; how to become famous (sort of); the history of women in photography; and more of Jay's delightful "verbal snapshots," this time featuring Michael Kenna, Arnold Newman, Aaron Scharf, and Ferenc Berko. The book's title, as explained in the introduction, has its roots in the author's dislike for typing: after installing voice recognition software into his computer, Jay spoke into his computer: 'I would like to produce a collection of articles called Something Photographic, a seemingly bland phrase but nevertheless one which sounds rather jaunty.' As Jay sat back and watched, the computer typed: 'I would like to produce a collection of articles called sun in the blood of the cat...' Jay looked at that sentence and said to himself: 'Yes, I would!' So here it is, joining Occam's Razor (now back in print) and Cyanide & Spirits (to be re-released this Autumn) on our growing list of titles from Bill Jay.