Pictures I Had to Take

“Being an actor and in the public eye, this…was a private act that could (should I choose) be shared with others.…As long as I can remember, I’ve loved taking photographs. It was always a complete and spontaneous pleasure for me, ‘Oh my God, look at that!’ I never thought about a tripod, zoom, or light meter. It was never work, only satisfaction. Looking…observing...recording...reflecting. Acts unspoiled by ambition, expectation, or competition.”
—Joel Grey

Pictures I Had to Take, the first monograph by acclaimed actor Joel Grey, is a highly personal visual memoir of Grey’s experiences while living and traveling in Europe, Asia, South and Central America, and the United States over the last twenty-five years. Separate and apart from his theater and film work, Grey exhibits for us images that he was compelled to remember and record—the pictures he “had to take.” Whether focusing his camera on a serene golden Buddha or on a majestic vista of misty Incan ruins, we can sense Grey’s delightful sense of wonder and joy in the detail and the magnificent on each page, guiding us through a quarter-century of intensely felt observations.