Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/02/20

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Subject: [Leica] Eugene Smith, Charlie Chaplin, and 6 Leicas
From: profmason at yahoo.com (John Edwin Mason)
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:32:43 -0800 (PST)

S.D. wrote:

> From what I recall, Smith was a poor printer. Doing the printing himself 
> was more of an economic necessity than part of his photographic 
> avocation.

He was a brilliant printer.  In "W. Eugene Smith, The Camera as Conscience," 
John T. Hill pretty much sums it up:

"His prints became legend, featuring impenetrable darks of blackness and 
ranging to clean linen whites.  ...There were breathtaking in their beauty 
and difficulty to reproduce."

In any case, regarding the Chaplin photo essay, he was gloomy about the 
essay as a whole, not his prints:

http://johnedwinmason.typepad.com/john_edwin_mason_photogra/2010/02/eugene-smith-charlie-chaplin.html

http://bit.ly/cOvg1X

--John

******************************
John Edwin Mason, Photography:
http://www.JohnEdwinMason.com
Charlottesville and Cape Town


Replies: Reply from passaro.vince at gmail.com (Vince Passaro) ([Leica] Eugene Smith, Charlie Chaplin, and 6 Leicas)