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Overview
Let Truth Be The Prejudice. W Eugene Smith: His Life and Photographs. Worldfamous biography by Ben Maddow; Afterword by John G. Morris. Here is the definitive book on Smith's life and work, containing his major photoessays, the portrait work, and spanning his brilliant career from his days aboard an aircraft carrier, through the breadth of Pittsburgh, to the human suffering explicit in his last great essay in Minanata. 250 duotone photographs, 10 X 13, 240 pages.This reprinting of Ben Maddow's clssic 1985 'illustrated biography' of this century's most richly problematic photojournalist a book full of ideas, insights, information, and fine reproductions now joins Jim Hughes's subsequent critical biography, Shadow and Substance, Gilles Mora and John T. Hill's just published W. Eugene Smith: Photographs 1934-1975, unfortunately out of print Master of the Photographic Essay, to constitute a substantial critical literature in book form on this germinal figure."
A.D. Coleman, ARTnews
Editorials
Library Journal
This survey of Smith's work is a particularly fine one, in terms of the reproduction quality, choice, and layout of images. The juxtaposition of picture groups seems to parallel the emotional upheavals and periods of calm in his life: World War II, rural America, Ku Klux Klan, Spain and Africa (Albert Schweitzer), the mammoth Pittsburgh project, gentle views from his Manhattan window, jazz artists, an unpublished Haiti essay, Japan (Minamata). The pictures (accompanied by lengthy quotations from Smith) speak eloquently of his vision, mission, and craftsmanship. Unfortunately, Maddow's essay adds far more than we need to know about Smith's personal relationships, by way of a tiresome pastiche taken from the thousands of documents at the Center for Creative Photography. (Maddow performed this same service in Edward Weston: fifty years ). The accompanying bibliography of photo essays and writings by and about Smith is very useful. Kathleen Collins, Library of CongressBooknews
In this illustrated biography, Maddow (prize-winning poet, short-story writer, essayist, and critic of photography) presents Smith's major photo-essays and portrait work that span his brilliant career from his days aboard an aircraft carrier, through the breadth of Pittsburgh, to the human suffering explicit in his last great essay made in Minamata. He takes an unflinching look at the man whose achievements were realized at no small cost to himself and those around him, and looks at the muses and demons that drove Smith to the fulfillment of his dream of greatness. Beautifully illustrated in b&w. Oversize: 10.25x13<">. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Book Details
Published
September 12, 1985
Publisher
[New York] : Aperture [1985?]
Pages
240
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780893811792