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| Let Truth Be the Prejudice: W. Eugene Smith, His Life and Photographs
     
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Hardcover
240 pages
Aperture
Published 1998
From Library Journal
This survey of Smith's work is a particularly fine one, in terms of the reproduction quality, choice, and layout of images. The juxtaposition of picture groups seems to parallel the emotional upheavals and periods of calm in his life: World War II, rural America, Ku Klux Klan, Spain and Africa (Albert Schweitzer), the mammoth Pittsburgh project, gentle views from his Manhattan window, jazz artists, an unpublished Haiti essay, Japan (Minamata). The pictures (accompanied by lengthy quotations from Smith) speak eloquently of his vision, mission, and craftsmanship. Unfortunately, Maddow's essay adds far more than we need to know about Smith's personal relationships, by way of a tiresome pastiche taken from the thousands of documents at the Center for Creative Photography. (Maddow performed this same service in Edward Weston: fifty years ). The accompanying bibliography of photo essays and writings by and about Smith is very useful. Kathleen Collins, Library of Congress
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"In Eugene Smith's work the world found an important aspect of America-- its longstanding moral passion. He hungered after that conclusive, suggestive moment of visual truth; he sought through pictures a prìcis of one then another aspect of our humanity. And he succeeded in that search-- giving us in sum a broad and deep rendering of this life's thickly textured particulars. We are much indebted to him."--Robert Coles, author of Dorothea Lange: Photographs of a Lifetime "Gene Smith... read more
Book Description
Photographs by W. Eugene Smith Illustrated biography by Ben Maddow Afterword by John G. Morris Let Truth Be The Prejudice documents the life and work of W. Eugene Smith, a man whose work expanded the range and depth of photography, bringing new aesthetic and moral power to the photo essay. Smith was born in 1918 in Wichita, Kansas, and raised according to traditional American values, believing in the nobility of America and the injustice of war. He began taking pictures with his mother's camera while still a boy and continued this practice throughout his schooling. In 1937 his burning ambition took him to New York City, where his rise as a professional photographer was meteoric. Before he was twenty-one, Smith had placed hundreds of photographs in the major picture magazines of the time. Dramatic composition, a hard-edged brilliance, and a mastery of lighting were evident even in this early work. But the moment of true ground-breaking would occur during World War II. It was when Smith went ashore with the Marines at Saipan, Guam, and Iwo Jima that his work and his sense of moral responsibility came together. He wrote: "Each time I pressed the shutter release it was a shouted condemnation hurled with the hope that they might echo through the minds of men in the future-- causing them caution and remembrance and realization." Breaking from the concerns of the mass media, his personal priorities were born. Smith's war photographs earned him repeated and justified comparisons to Mathew Brady. His coverage of American prisoner-of-war camps helped convince the Japanese that their fears were exaggerated, and stopped the suicide of thousands of terrified citizens upon the advance of American troops. This would not be the last time that Smith's work would change as well as document history. After the war, Smith became a staff photographer at Life magazine, where he created many of his most famous photographs. The essays "Country Doctor" and "Nurse Midwife" influenced an entire generation. Smith moved from mine villages in Great Britain to Albert Schweitzer in French Equatorial Africa to a sweeping study of Spanish village life. At a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan he created haunting images of hatred, fear, and bigotry, which beautifully counterpoint the humanity of his great Life essays. Smith also showed his skill at portraiture, shooting many of the luminaries of the time. His frustrations with commercial publishing finally led to a split with Life magazine in 1954, a true case of |
Let Truth Be the Prejudice: W. Eugene Smith, His Life and Photographs
Ben Maddow; John G. Morris (Afterword); & W. Eugene Smith (Photographer) |  |
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W. Eugene Smith
Gilles Mora |  |
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W. Eugene Smith
W. Eugene Smith; & Jim Hughes (Contributor) |  |
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W. Eugene Smith: His Photographs and Notes
W. Eugene Smith; & Lincoln Kirsten (Photographer) |  |
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Dream Street: W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project, 1955-1958
W. Eugene Smith; Sam Stephenson (Editor); & Carnegie Museum of Art |  |
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