Richard Baily from James Brown on Vimeo.
My late friend Rich Baily was an artist whose speciality was painting. I decided to make a video of him discussing his work because he comes from a very different perspective than photojournaliism. I am so glad I did because he died several months after I made the interview.
Photographers make their selections of lenses, angles, supplementary lighting (if any) with definite and purposeful connections to stories. Every snap of the shutter has a purpose.
Many of Rich’s paintings are complex and definitely have a story behind the–sometimes. Other paintings have no intentional story. Indeed, he did not like to discuss a painting at all until he deemed it finished. That could be as little as a few days or as much as four or five years. “If I talk about a painting, it is ruined for me and I don’t finish it,” he told me.
The painting he was working on in the video was his last painting. Since it was not finished at the time, I purposefully did not ask questions about it. He did talk about developing characters and in that discussion you will see a version of a character that is in the painting.
One thing we discussed was interpretation of paintings and photographs. Clearly, we all bring our prior experiences and backgrounds to the interpretation of a news photograph or a painting. His closing comment of people bringing complete stories to the meaning of his paintings which were not all all what he was thinking was fascinating both to him and me.
Photographers work with what is and try to capture its essence. Painters work with what will be when their minds and brushes are finished with a work.
I always thought Baily’s paintings were very good and many had stories behind them. His last painting had no intentional story. The painting simply evolved as he worked on it.