The Suit Magazine

Bill Barley carries a Nikon around his neck as a professional photographer.  He’s taken over 5,000 rolls of film as a veteran shooter, capturing gritty images for Life Magazine, and countless others, during the 1960s, when New York had more newspapers than candy stores. “That’s when the newspaper industry was booming and I made more money than ever before,” he said. “I miss those days.”

The veteran shooter said he’s walked the streets of New York as photojournalist.  He worked with several news outfits in his time, including the New York Times, several tabloids, and a small stint with UPI.  “It was John Dusniak, the Photo Editor, who virtually extended my freelance contract for more than a year. That’s was a nice run,” Barley said with a chuckle.  Today, as chief photographer of Bill Barley & Associates, a company he founded in 1966, he specializes in commercial and industrial photography.  He provides “full-service cinematography,” including advisements, lighting, and state-of-the-art camera equipment.  Barley handles corporate accounts, including special catalogs for small and mid-size companies. Barley is even proficient with a computer and handles graphic design assignments. “I’ve been doing graphic design for a long time now,” he said.

The history of Photojournalism is very interesting. According to the Rochester institute of Technology, “Photojournalism is the visual reporting of news for publication in newspapers and magazines,” they served as the eyes and ears, as true eyewitness and observer of history. In the old days, “most photojournalists were not college-educated. They became photojournalists by working an apprenticeship system. First, they worked as lab technicians in a newspaper’s darkroom and then being promoted to shooter.” “That was the general rule,” Barley said, “photojournalists back in those days were not college educated.”   For years, many photojournalists worked in an apprentice system. They labored long hours in the smelly dark rooms of newspapers across the country, before being promoted to “shooter.”

They later earned the nickname “writers with the light,” because many of their photographs reported the news visually.  As it turns out, photojournalists were the great adventurers and interpreters of history. That’s why Barley is honored to be called a veteran shooter of his era. “I captured a lot of photos in my time,” he said with slight guffaw. “I did a lot of good photography.” 


Bill Barley & Associates

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