Minamata. Rare inscribed book. Words and photographs by W. Eugene Smith and Aileen M. Smith. Alskog-Sensorium/Holt, Rinehart, Winston, New York, 1975. 192 pp. First edition. Signed on half title page. Inscription reads To Ralph, So Long A Time & Friend, 1975.
Large quarto. Stiff wrappers. Numerous black-and-white reproductions.
Also included is the Portfolio -Life, Sacred And Profane.
Perhaps Smith's best work, Minimata documents the Japanese struggle against the ravages of pollution. Defining a classic photojournalist trope, it opens with the source of pollution and procedes to expose its very human effects, the struggle and protests, the joy of victory and the legacy of careless destruction. It was within this essay that Smith's haunting photographs of Tomoko first appeared. The images chosen show the industrial pollution, the disfiguring effects of Minamata Disease on the people of the area, protests against the polluters, and the members of the environmental disputes board debating the situation. "Photography is a small voice at best," writes Smith, "Daily we are deluged with photography at its worst - until its drone of superficiality threatens to numb our sensivity to the image. Then why photograph? ... Because sometimes - just sometimes - a photograph or photographs can strike our senses into greater awareness...photographs can demand of emotions enough to be a catalyst to thinking."
Large quarto. Stiff wrappers. Numerous black-and-white reproductions.
Also included is the Portfolio -Life, Sacred And Profane.
Perhaps Smith's best work, Minimata documents the Japanese struggle against the ravages of pollution. Defining a classic photojournalist trope, it opens with the source of pollution and procedes to expose its very human effects, the struggle and protests, the joy of victory and the legacy of careless destruction. It was within this essay that Smith's haunting photographs of Tomoko first appeared. The images chosen show the industrial pollution, the disfiguring effects of Minamata Disease on the people of the area, protests against the polluters, and the members of the environmental disputes board debating the situation. "Photography is a small voice at best," writes Smith, "Daily we are deluged with photography at its worst - until its drone of superficiality threatens to numb our sensivity to the image. Then why photograph? ... Because sometimes - just sometimes - a photograph or photographs can strike our senses into greater awareness...photographs can demand of emotions enough to be a catalyst to thinking."
