[Leica] Gene Smith lost and found

[steve.barbour at gmail.com (Steve Barbour)]

hi Vince, 

I too would love to read your article about Smith,

thanks, 

Steve


On Jan 26, 2010, at 11:22 PM, Vince Passaro wrote:

> Richard,
> 
> The "W. Eugene Smith Photographs 1934-1975" about which you ask is the most
> comprehensive book I know of, large and heavy and very well printed (I'd
> rate it 'coffee table ++' in the KEH rating system...).  Abrams is the
> publisher; the two guys who put it together are Gilles Morra and someone
> else whose name escapes me now, but you'll find it. You'll have to buy it
> used as it's out of print.
> 
> Meanwhile, Dream Street, which you have, is a book one could get lost in 
> for
> years, trying to come to grips with Smith's vision. He was hired to take a
> dozen pictures and stay a week. He stayed over two years and no one to 
> speak
> of ever bought any of the photos. I think it's his best work.
> 
> The Jazz Loft Project is fascinating; it's the excuse for the Harper's
> piece. He would sit in the windows of the loft for hours and hours and even
> sometimes days, playing speed against alcohol and taking pictures of the
> street -- one every twenty minutes or every hour even: just one shot. The
> results are amazing. The stuff of the musicians is also great. Plus he 
> wired
> the whole building for sound and made four thousand hours of tape. The book
> has some representative transcripts.
> 
> Finally, there's a book called "Let Truth Be the Prejudice" that has a very
> well written (though in a few spots factually imperfect) 'illustrated bio'
> to accompany the very good selection of pictures, as well as a few other
> really good essays.
> 
> Salgado, I think, is the closest thing we have now to Smith, but Salgado is
> manifestly saner and much, much, much better funded.  He has a large vision
> obviously, but Smith had an almost miraculous ability to get right up into
> reality's face, inches away, regardless of the conditions. Salgado is 
> daring
> and brave, but Smith was suicidal.
> 
> VP
> 
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