“PHOTOGRAPHY IS A SMALL VOICE… I BELIEVE IN IT”

SMITH, W. Eugene. W. Eugene Smith. Early Work. Tucson: Center for Creative Photography, (Number 12, July 1980). Quarto, original stiff photographic wrappers. $125.

First edition of one of the earliest posthumous collections of Smith’s work, with 99 photogravures and numerous in-text images of his work from 1938-51, including many of his finest from WWII, as well as those from Country Doctor (1948) and Spanish Village (1951).

“The life and work of W. Eugene Smith can be summed up in one word: commitment” (Govignon, 273) “Photography is a small voice,” Smith once said. “I believe in it.” At the time of his death in 1978, Smith was living in Tucson and inventorying his prints for “the best 2,000… which would be earmarked for the Center for Creative Photography” at the University of Arizona (Hughes, 542). This homage to Smith’s Early Work, published a year and a half later by the Center, marks one of the first posthumous works dedicated to Smith. With essays by William Johnson, James Enyeart, John Morris and extensive bibliography. Published in wrappers only; as issued without dust jacket. See Roth, 232. From the library of renowned photojournalist Peter Turnley and signed by him on the Contents page.

Text and images fine, light soiling to near-fine wrappers.