{"id":5354363,"date":"2019-10-18T15:44:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T15:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.life.com\/?post_type=photographer&p=5354363"},"modified":"2019-10-18T15:44:02","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T15:44:02","slug":"bill-ray","status":"publish","type":"photographer","link":"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/bill-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Ray"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \"Bill\n
\n

<\/p>\n

Bill Ray taking a picture of his own reflection as he is being fitted for a suit while on assignment during Hubert Humphry’s visit of Saigon. (Photo by Bill Ray\/The LIFE Picture Collection \u00a9 Meredith Corporation)<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

“When a LIFE magazine photographer came to a small town in America, the headline might be ‘Missouri Floods-100,000 Homeless; LIFE Photographer Eisenstaedt in Town,'” said Bill Ray (born 1936), who took up the camera to escape his tiny Nebraska hometown. He always wanted to be closer to the action. He turned down a job at National Geographic to be a freelancer in New York City covering people. When LIFE sent him to Vietnam, he would goad pilots to fly him lower. “Damn it, I didn’t come here to photograph stars,” he once yelled at a pilot, who grinned and took him down. When LIFE planned “One Day in the Life of America” in 1974, Ray was set to shoot pictures in a missile silo. “My mother died, and her funeral was on that day. So that was my assignment.” He photographed her funeral for LIFE. Ray said his mom would have liked it that way.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\n
\n \"Japan's\n
\n

<\/p>\n

Japan’s greatest industrialist\/philosopher Konosuke Matsushita, 69, walking in the raked gravel garden of his philosophical institute. (Photo by Bill Ray\/The LIFE Picture Collection \u00a9 Meredith Corporation)<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Ray spent three and a half months in Japan in 1964 for a LIFE special issue. \u201cI did pictures of Konosuke Matsushita, the Henry Ford of Japan. I had him walking through his garden\u2014a beautiful rock garden\u2014and if I wanted him to go back and do it again, he did it. I don’t know if I asked him in English or what. I guess I waved at him or something. A lot of gardeners would come out and rake all the stones just in the right place, and he’d walk again.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>Adapted from <\/span>The Great LIFE Photographers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n \"Actress\n
\n

<\/p>\n

Actress Jane Fonda carrying a Louis Vuitton bag as she walks down the street. (Photo by Bill Ray\/The LIFE Picture Collection \u00a9 Meredith Corporation)<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n

\n \"Oberlin\n
\n

<\/p>\n

Oberlin College students kissing in a co-ed dorm. (Photo by Bill Ray\/The LIFE Picture Collection \u00a9 Meredith Corporation)<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

\n
\n \"A\n
\n

<\/p>\n

A pilot looking out the window of a plane. (Photo by Bill Ray\/The LIFE Picture Collection \u00a9 Meredith Corporation)<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“When a LIFE magazine photographer came to a small town in America, the headline might be ‘Missouri Floods-100,000 Homeless; LIFE Photographer Eisenstaedt in Town,’” said Bill Ray (born 1936), who took up the camera to escape his tiny Nebraska hometown. He always wanted to be closer to the action. He turned down a job at … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5355519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5354363","photographer","type-photographer","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Photography of Bill Ray | LIFE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about Bill Ray, one of the many photographers for LIFE who captured some of the most iconic pictures from the US & around the World.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/bill-ray\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Photography of Bill Ray | LIFE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn about Bill Ray, one of the many photographers for LIFE who captured some of the most iconic pictures from the US & around the World.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/bill-ray\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"LIFE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-10-18T15:44:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/18154315\/00835672-e1571413395592.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/bill-ray\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/bill-ray\/\",\"name\":\"The Photography of Bill Ray | LIFE\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/bill-ray\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/bill-ray\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/18154315\/00835672-e1571413395592.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-18T15:44:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-18T15:44:02+00:00\",\"description\":\"Learn about Bill Ray, one of the many photographers for LIFE who captured some of the most iconic pictures from the US & around the World.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/bill-ray\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/bill-ray\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.life.com\/photographer\/bill-ray\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/18154315\/00835672-e1571413395592.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.life.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/18154315\/00835672-e1571413395592.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":707,\"caption\":\"A pilot looking out the window of a plane. 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