“AN IDEAL OF WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH THE MEDIUM”: FIRST EDITION OF W. EUGENE SMITH’S MINAMATA, 1975

SMITH, W. Eugene and SMITH, Aileen M. Minamata. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975. Large quarto, original blind-stamped burgundy leatherette, original dust jacket. $400.

Deluxe first edition, W. Eugene Smith’s last major photobook, a searing indictment of environmental pollution, with 150 finely screened black-and-white photogravures documenting the tragedy of Minamata. From the collection of acclaimed photojournalist Peter Turnley.

“A kind of patron saint of documentary photography… W. Eugene Smith pioneered a way of working in which he would spend weeks and even months on a story… an ideal of what can be done with the medium… [In] Minamata, Smith’s last major photo essay… he recorded the impact of mercury poisoning on a small Japanese fishing village” (New York Times). Within this moving indictment of environmental pollution, “Smith’s photograph of 16-year-old Tomoko Uemura being bathed by her mother is the last great photograph Smith was to make before his death in 1978. In this image, the tragedy of Minamata is recorded and transcended at the same time” (Roth, 232). “The Minamata pictures brought Smith great acclaim, but a severe beating—reportedly by hired thugs—he suffered during the project… caused his health to deteriorate seriously before his death.” “Deluxe” edition printed same month as trade edition in cloth, and in wrappers, no priority established. See Szarkowski, 150. From the collection of award-winning photojournalist Peter Turnley, who has chronicled “almost every important international news event of the last 15 years” for Newsweek and Harper’s Magazine; signed by Turnley on the half title (New York Times).

Book fine; some edge-wear, tape reinforcement to verso of bright, extremely good dust jacket.