“THE HUNGERS OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT”: VINTAGE GELATIN SILVER PRINT FROM W. EUGENE SMITH’S PRIVATE COLLECTION, FEATURED IN HIS JAPAN… A CHAPTER OF IMAGE

SMITH, W. Eugene. Photograph. Hitachi, Ltd.—Violinist from the Hitachi Symphony. No place, 1961. Vintage gelatin silver print (measures 11 by 16 inches), matted (total measures 20 by 16 inches), Smith’s estate inkstamp on print verso, gallery label on mat verso. $4200.

Vintage gelatin silver print from the estate of W. Eugene Smith, his image of a young symphony violinist and Hitachi worker, affirming that “it is the people in front of his lens who most strongly attract his attention” (New York Times). Taken circa 1961 and chosen for his 1963 photobook Japan… A Chapter of Image, this print with Smith’s estate inkstamp on the verso was featured in a highly praised 1996 New York gallery exhibit.

This luminous gelatin silver print of a young violinist in Japan’s Hitachi Symphony speaks to W. Eugene Smith’s artistry—in which “it is the people in front of his lens who most strongly attract his attention, and his sympathy” (New York Times). Taken in the year from 1961-2 that Smith photographed the workers and plants of Hitachi, this image was chosen for inclusion in his critically praised photobook of that period Japan… A Chapter of Image (1963): a testimony to his passion for protecting and nourishing the “hungers of the human spirit” (Hughes, 426). Print with inkstamp on the verso reading “Photograph by W. Eugene Smith: This authenticated photograph was in the private collection of W. Eugene Smith at the time of his death—October 15, 1978.” Mat with small label of New York’s Lowinsky Gallery, which exhibited this print and others from the estate in early 1996.

A fine print.