W. EUGENE SMITH’S “CAMERA, ANCHORED IN THE HEART, MOVES ME BY ITS INTEGRITY” (HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON): ASSOCIATION COPY OF LET TRUTH BE THE PREJUDICE, 1985

(SMITH, W. Eugene) MADDOW, Ben. Let Truth Be the Prejudice. W. Eugene Smith. His Life and Photographs. (New York): Aperture, (1985). Large quarto, original gray cloth, original photographic dust jacket. $650.

First edition of this definitive posthumous retrospective on the life and work of W. Eugene Smith, a association copy signed by photographer Margery Lewis Smith, whose relationship with the photographer began in 1951 and continued “for the remainder of his life” (Ben Maddow). Lewis Smith’s own work was featured in Steichen’s landmark 1955 Family of Man exhibit.

In 1971 an exhibit opened at the Jewish Museum with a title chosen by W. Eugene Smith—”Let Truth Be Prejudice.” Hailed as “a great photographer’s spiritual autobiography” (Village Voice), its images are memorably recalled in this volume of the same title that was published to coincide with a subsequent ten-city exhibit that followed Smith’s sudden death in 1978. The numerous large duotones assembled herein contain the finest work of this photographer whose epic intensity fundamentally altered modern photography. Smith was, “above all, a photographer of action—vivid, highly particularized human action—which he renders with razor-sharp emotion” (New York Times). With over 170 large duotones and numerous in-text images. Biographical essay by Ben Maddow. Afterword by John G. Morris. From the library of photographer Margery Lewis Smith and signed by her. The longtime partner of Eugene Smith, Lewis Smith first met him in 1951, when they began an “emotional commitment that was to endure, with some lapses, for the remainder of his life.” As this volume’s biography of Eugene Smith notes, Lewis Smith, whose work was featured in Steichen’s landmark 1955 Family of Man exhibit at MoMA, would also have a long and “distinguished career in photojournalism” (43).

An exceptional association copy in fine condition.