I like to imagine my pictures where there are ads like on the sides of buildings or magazines or in the subway. In 1976, I organized an exhibition of 5,000 photographs inside 400 New York City buses. I’ve been doing these kinds of projects ever since.

Today, there are 57,000 of my insert portfolios in Wall Street Journal in Manhattan. That’s all its subscribers in Manhattan. I’m an artist renting advertising space. I have not received a grant or financial compensation from newspapers. Occasionally, I sell a print. I’ve done insert portfolios in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA and the New York Times in Brooklyn. Each insert is different. My highest hope in putting my pictures in newspapers is to give a little surprise and offer a short respite from the ongoing din. Those of us who still have the habit of sitting down with a daily newspaper receive benefits far beyond just acquiring information. But most people get their news from TV, computer and now, increasingly, phones. The effect has caused newspapers to lower advertising rates, which in turn has made it possible for me to insert my pictures into today’s paper. When I was coming up only me and my friends (other photography students) carried cameras all the time. Now everyone has a camera. Everyone’s a photographer. And everyone gets to recognize something special and make a picture. That’s what these pictures are. Just being out and about and suddenly there’s something special.

This duotone portfolio was printed on 80# dull cover stock by Miles Press in Worcester, MA.

Bill Arnold
billarnoldphotographs.com
Original prints available upon request