Biography

Jay Gale was born in 1945 and raised in New York City. He attended Queens College and in 1970 received his doctorate in psychology at the University of Tennessee. He began taking photographs when he was 8 years old on a “state of the art” Kodak Brownie camera and continued to develop that interest over the past 63 years. However, during the thirty nine years he practiced as a clinical psychologist (1970 to 2009) photography remained only a serious hobby. Along with his practice, he wrote 4 books which have been widely published throughout the world. This synthesis of his passion for photography and his expertise as a psychologist has created a unique perspective.

Interpreted through this prism he presents digital images which immediately capture one’s attention but at the same time encourages the viewer to become a participant in the artistic process. His images are based upon the gestalt principle of closure, which contends that if enough of an incomplete shape or object is indicated, people perceive the whole by filling in the missing information. Consequently the observer is challenged not to move on until his or her mind has projected his own interpretation into that last piece of the artistic puzzle, thus making it uniquely his own.

Even though his art is digitally based Jay admires the wisdom of Ansel Adams, the maestro of the photographic print, who said “Fine prints are like a musical performance. The negative is the composer’s score and the print is the performance.” However, taking a creative photograph only represents a fraction of his final creation. His belief is that “in the twenty first century computer chips may have replaced film and the digital image may have superseded the negative but for me the visual symphony still resides in the final print.”

Jay continues to travel throughout the world enjoying the uniqueness and the photographic opportunities that each destination offers. He then incorporates the international experience and a small percentage of the photos into his digital art.

Recently, his art has begun to attract attention with a show presented by Breton Fine Art in Laguna Beach, CA (2016) and another scheduled at Soka University for three months beginning February 6, 2017.