W.M. Hunt, art dealer, educator, and collector extraordinaire, began his own photography collection almost 40 years ago as an antidote to depression. In a going-out-of-business sale, he found what he describes as "a girlie Madonna-like figurine, and it probably was not even a silver print." He paid $40 dollars (which he didn’t have to spare) and took it home, where "she would come out of the frame and tell me to hang on, 'It gets better.'" That was the beginning of what has become known as Collection Dancing Bear, selections from which opens at George Eastman House this Saturday.

Three images from Collection Dancing Bear, which includes more than a thousand photographs spanning the history of the medium, assembled around an unusual theme: in each image, the gaze of the subject is averted, the face is obscured or the eyes are firmly closed.

In an interview I did in 2003 with Bill, as he’s known in the photography world, he offered some advice to new collectors. “Open yourself up to the visceral experience of looking at photographs and pay attention to what makes your heart beat faster—not what makes your head pound,” he said. “When you start to notice what are the exceptional moments, what pictures really turn you on, try to identify and articulate what appears to be your own taste in photography.”

Soon you will be able to read the entire interview on Bill’s website. For now, I invited him to respond to the DART Proust Questionnaire. Here’s what he wrote:

Q: What you like most about being creative.

A: Strange sense of fulfillment.

Q: Your best quality.

A: Insight.

Q: Your main fault.

A: Procrastination.

Q: The natural talent you wish you had.

B: Sexual charisma.

Q: If not yourself, who you would be.

A: A dolphin.

Q: What you would change about your appearance.

A: Better abs.

Q: The qualities you most appreciate in a life partner.

A: Consistency. 

Q: The qualities you most appreciate in a friend.

A: Loyalty.

Q: What makes you happy.

A: Pleasure.

Q: What makes you miserable.

A: Depression, mine or yours.

Q: What you would do on a midweek day off.

Q: Muse.

Q: The first art or photo book you bought, and where.

A: “Real Dreams” by Duane Michals is the most memorable.

Q: Your favorite writers.

A: Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Edmund White

Q: Your favorite New York neighborhood.

A: Riverside Park

Q: Your favorite food and drink.

A: Cocoanut cake. Iced water.

Q: What you are listening to now.

A: Traffic.

Q: Your greatest regret.

A: Time.

Q: Your greatest hope.

A; Time.

Q: How you would prefer to die.

A: Breathlessly whispering, “Enough.”

Q: Your favorite motto.

A: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there”.

Editor's note: You can meet Bill on Wednesday, October 12, 7pm at his talk, Unseen in The Unseen Eye, at SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, NY, NY. Information.

W.M. Hunt is a self-described is a champion of photography—a collector, curator, consultant, writer, teacher, and fundraiser who lives and works in New York City. He was a founding partner of the prominent photography gallery HASTED HUNT in Chelsea, Manhattan and served as director of photography at Ricco/Maresca gallery. His upcoming book The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the Unconscious (Aperture) focuses on Collection Dancing Bear, currently his largest collection of photographs.

Eastman House will present the first major U.S. exhibition of the collection, of which APERTURE is simultaneously publishing a book titled The Unseen Eye: Photographs from the Unconscious, to be released in October. Highlights from the collection have previously been seen in Europe at the Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, France; the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland; and Foam-Fotografiemuseum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 

He is a professor at the School of Visual Arts and on the Board of Directors of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund and The Center for Photography at Woodstock, N.Y., where he was the recipient of their Vision Award in 2009. He also served on the Board of Directors of AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) and as chairman of Photographers + Friends United Against AIDS.

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