W.Eugene Smith the Camera as Conscience

This is a complete monograph on the work of W. Eugene Smith, one of the heroes of American photojournalism. Beginning in the 1930s working for "Newsweek" and other magazines, he created subjective photo essays of lasting impact. Drawing from Smith's own archives and including illuminating texts from historians and critics, this comprehensive volume features duotone reproductions of both famous and never-before-published images. Smith's "Life" magazine photoessays are represented by images created in the 1940s and 1950s for, among others, the landmark "Country Doctor" and "Spanish Village". Among his later independent works are the ambitious series on Pittsburgh and Haiti from the late 1950s, the poetic series of New York pictures taken from Smith's window loft, and excerpts from his unpublished photographic autobiography, "The Walk to Paradise Garden". His last project was the disturbing 1970s "Minamata", on the consequences of industrial pollution in Japan.