Bill Jackson often quipped that he and his camera

 “Auditioned the World”, looking for just the right blend of the everyday and the unexpected, sparse indications of what might be, without the certainty of what is.  

A 1960’s graduate of Monteith College at Wayne State, Bill saw himself not as a storyteller nor a documentarian, but as a photographer seeking images with the power and creativity of late 20th century painting and music making.  

This exhibition is entitled “Homecoming” because it has been almost 6 years since Bill came home from the studio and excitedly announced that he had been asked to show some of his larger and more experimental photos at the University of Michigan’s North Campus.  His passing in 2018 and the intervening Covid years have delayed this exhibition until now.  I hope you will agree that the years have shown that the “long way around”  is sometimes the best.  

As Bill noted, ”My photography is sparse. Some images are dramatic encounters. Others invite exploration and contemplation. But they say no more than necessary.  I got there by going everywhere else first.”                                                                                                

Meighen Jackson