Re: [Leica] Eugene Smith in Pittsburgh

[Guy Bennett <gbennett@lainet.com>]

>Just returned home after a long road trip that started with a Tuesday in
>Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Museum of Art Eugene Smith exhibit; it is well
>worth the trip and the time.
>[snip]


It's funny you should mention this today. I just got a copy of "Dream
Street: W. Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh Project" yesterday and spent part of
last evening and this morning going through it. A fascinating project by an
equally fascinating photographer.

I think I admire WES more than any other photojournalist, primarily because
he was not only a photojournalist - he was an artist. He was in total
control of what he was doing technically and aesthetically (though I think
he occasionally went too far with burning and bleaching, particularly in
the "Nurse-Midwife" essay), and had aspirations for the craft that went
well beyond what traditional photojournalistic practices and genres could
offer him. The Pittsburgh project is one such example.

And I agree with you about the importance of the layout to his photographic
vision. Even the published version of the Pittsburgh photos ("A
Labyrinthian Walk," Pop Photo's Photography Annual for 1959) - which he
viewed as flawed - is fairly radical, and gives a glimpse at just how rich
his conception of the presentation of photographic images was. It wasn't
just a question of sequencing the pictures, but of their relative sizes and
combinations on a given page, and the relationships and meanings that those
rapprochements would create in the viewers mind. In a way, he was very much
a photographer "of the book," like Gibson is, and they share many of the
same concerns regarding the presentation of their work in printed form,
particularly with an eye to the way in which that presentation enhances the
meaning of the work as a visual whole.

I also think that Smith came closest to realizing what could be called the
"photo poem" (a dream of mine), which is different from the "photo essay"
in the same way that a poem is different from a work in prose. It's not
necessarily a question of form, but intent. The photo essay is narrative in
nature, and seeks to tell a story. The photo poem would seek to convey
something, but that thing might not be communicable in language (otherwise
why not just come out and say it?), nor in a photo essay, strictly
speaking. I think for Smith, it had to do with conveying truth, whatever
that might be. In an interesting interview (quoted on p. 165 of the
catalogue of the Pittsburgh show), Smith claimed that "photojournalism is
documentary photography with a purpose." A little further down, he
explains: "A journalist has to thoroughly understand the subject, and you
have to interpret that subject, keeping true to what it is."

I'd love to see that show but, alas, I'm in L.A. and it won't travel this
far west. I know it'll be in Arizona, but that's a little far to travel,
even for WES.

Guy
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