From W. Eugene Smith to Dorothea Lange, Olivia Laing considers the tensions between record and metaphor in the 1950s and ’60s.
via Aperture: https://aperture.org/editorial/the-midcentury-photographers-who-balanced-reportage-with-artistry/
From W. Eugene Smith to Dorothea Lange, photography in the 1950s and ’60s was alive with the tensions between record and metaphor.
The new film Minamata starring Johnny Depp explores the final chapter of Smith’s career. Here, his widow Aileen Mioko Smith recounts their extraordinary work.
Link: https://www.blind-magazine.com/en/news/1352/Revisiting-Minamata-W-Eugene-Smiths-Final-Photo-Series
The new film Minamata starring Johnny Depp explores the final chapter of Smith’s career. Here, his widow Aileen Mioko Smith recounts their extraordinary work.
From iconic images of major world events, to intimate moments of pleasure and delight — here is an outstanding selection of remarkable images from Magnum Photos — each with a personal story
via LensCulture: https://www.lensculture.com/articles/magnum-photos-turning-points-life-changing-moments-by-magnum-photographers
From iconic images of major world events, to intimate moments of pleasure and delight — here is an outstanding selection of remarkable images from Magnum Photos — each with a personal story.
W. Eugene Smith was one of the greatest photojournalists of the 20th Century, but I think he would probably have a hard time if he was still alive and decided to enter World Press Photo, which just decreed that only “retouching which conforms to currently accepted standards in the industry is allowed.”
Last week, I talked about the photo essay “Country Doctor” by W. Eugene Smith, and today I would like to focus more on his life and photography in
via PetaPixel: https://petapixel.com/2019/08/17/w-eugene-smith-master-of-the-editorial-photo-essay/
William Eugene Smith has been described as “perhaps the single most important American photographer in the development of the editorial photo essay.” He shot photo projects so large that they cannot be displayed in any museum. Let’s take a closer look at this brilliant photographer.
[contentcards url=”http://www.loeildelaphotographie.com/en/2017/06/30/article/159958492/the-unknown-eye-and-the-eugenes/”]
via The Paris Review: http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/11/20/in-the-darkroom-with-w-eugene-smith/
Gene always liked to get separations around people, figures, and that was always done with potassium ferrocyanide. It was the contrast that made the prints difficult. Gene saw the contrast with his eyes, but the negative wouldn’t capture it the same way. So he would have to bring the lamp down and burn, and then if that spilled too much exposure and made it too dark, you would lighten it with the ferrocyanide.
I guess what I miss most is the solitude. I remember standing alone in the pitch black of a hotel road darkroom after a dangerous day, with my arms thrust deep into a sink of 68-degree wash water for no reason while I waited for the fixer to clear my film. There, in the absence of every sight, of every sound, it was peace.
Link: Discussing Honesty in Imagery – NYTimes.com
“The American Society of Media Photographers recently discovered the transcript of an interview of W. Eugene Smith, conducted by the great portraitist Philippe Halsmann and the society’s first president”
W. Eugene Smith’s Pittsburgh Photographs
Carnegie, Nov/Dec 2001 by Ellen S. Wilson
“Don’t expect,” wrote photographer W Eugene Smith, “a point-by-point hand-led tour. This is an experience as an intensely curious visitor (perhaps a new resident) mig
via AMERICAN SUBURB X: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2009/11/theory-w-eugene-smiths-pittsburgh.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Americansuburb+%28AMERICANSUBURBX%29
“Don’t expect,” wrote photographer W Eugene Smith, “a point-by-point hand-led tour. This is an experience as an intensely curious visitor (perhaps a new resident) might discover it.”
Smith wrote those notes to himself as he began his Pittsburgh project, what he later called “the finest set of photographs I have ever produced.” With a clear vision and a spectacular result, it is puzzling that Smith also considered the project a failure, and that until now the final results have never been exhibited together.
A good friend of mine just gave me the DVD: Brilliant Fever: W. Eugene Smith and Pittsburgh and while I knew Smith’s work, I fell in love with it all over again watching it.
