Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/04/02

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Subject: Re: [Leica] I missed it.
From: Walter S Delesandri <walt@jove.acs.unt.edu>
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1999 19:00:37 -0600 (CST)

Mark, that's why he had a bottle of ferricyanide handy the next 
day....I never met Smith, I regret, but had an instructor years 
ago who briefly worked with him a LIFE.....apparently, all the 
stories are very true...he was a drunk, amphetamine junkie, 
not very considerate of family and friends at times (MOST times), 
but could be a great humanitarian, too.....and the best 
PJ/Documentarian to have ever lived...
Walt

dOn Fri,
2
Apr 1999, Mark Rabiner wrote:

> Claes Bjerner wrote:
> > 
> > Eric wrote:
> > > Actually, it was at least in part abuse of alcohol and amphetamines that
> > > killed him. Although it was a fall in a convenience store while picking up
> > > some cat food that finally killed him.
> > 
> snip
> > Claes
> 
> I saw a wide angle shot of Smith in his darkroom very cluttered and the
> caption reading a quote from him saying all he needed to make a Smith
> print was a bottle of Scotch and all night in the darkroom. In my minds
> eye I picture the bottle of Scotch there right next to his enlarger but
> that might have been the power of the suggestion on the part of the quote.
> It sure rang a bell with me!
> I also thought if I was up all night with one neg and a bottle of scotch
> I would tend to print down too. 
> That's darkroom work the longer I spend on a neg the darker it gets.
> The next day with dry down blues the final print is not the last one
> pulled. 
> Mark Rabiner
>