MY REVIEW: JAY MYSELF (2019)

I watched a documentary called "Jay Myself" about famous New York photographer Jay Maisel. He lived in the old Germania Bank Building from 1966 to 2014. He bought the building for around $150,000 and sold it for $55 million dollars. Not surprisingly, he is also an astute businessman and has sold has photographs to major businesses. He is not pretentious. He is not ironic. He has a child like sense of discovery even at the age of 88. He smokes cigars. He collects random things like old VHS cardboard boxes that have different colors and textures to them. When one of his students from 1979 came back to film him moving out of his bank building, he said "I'm glad to see that at our advanced ages, we haven't matured one bit."
Everything and everyone has value. The creation of something or someone is just as important as the decay. A person in a new suit is as fascinating as paint peeling off of an old steel sign. He has a very loving wife and a young daughter that calls him 'a father and a kooky uncle combined.'  She is currently a student at the Fordham University School of Law.
Jay and his wife moved to a different home in New York City; an old carriage house that has been converted into a home and work space. The song "Kodachrome" by Paul Simon plays at the end of the film. "You take pictures and you are taken by pictures." -Jay Maisel
I highly enjoyed the movie as it shows that artists can be normal people and not just artsy fartsy tortured souls. Hell, even Andy Warhol guested starred on an episode of "The Love Boat" not because of some ironic art project, but because he truly enjoyed the show.  My rating: A+