Bill Jay was a significant figure in photography criticism in the 20th century. He began his career as a photographer, but following the advice of Magnum photographer David Hurn, he soon turned to cultivate his talents in writing about photography instead. He went on to work as a curator, lecturer, mentor and magazine and picture editor. In 1968 he was the first editor of the influential magazine Creative Camera, then in 1970 founded the photo-magazine Album photo-magazine. Around this time, Jay also founded a centre for photographic study at the Institute of Creative Arts. After doing much to stimulate a greater academic interest in photography in Britain, he enrolled at the University of New Mexico to study photography more formally. There, he studied under Beaumont Newhall, another prominent photography curator and critic, and director of the George Eastman Museum.

Throughout his long career as an ardent advocate of photography, Jay made portraits of many of the eminent photographers and curators he met and worked with. The photographs by Jay offered as a gift come from this project, 'Photographs of Photographers', which Jay continued until his death in 2009. Each of the six portraits depicts a photographer whose work features in the V&A Photographs Collection. Jay knew each of his subjects personally and his portraits have a greater air of informality and intimacy than other well- known images of these figures. For example, the picture of Weegee seated amidst his own messy apartment, casually holding a print up for the photographer to see, or Duane Michals seen from behind, at work in his studio, give privileged insight into both the working practices and personal worlds inhabited by the photographers.