Looking for a W. Eugene Smith Video

5stringdeath

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Hey all

I used to have on VHS a "Biopic" about W. Eugene Smith called "Photography Made Difficult." Just wondering if anyone has a copy, even VHS dub would be fine ... I can't locate my copy and its almost impossible to find as its out of print.

Thanks
 

Christopher Walrath

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It's not a tape or such but youtube comes up with some great stuff. And you're in luck. This was uploaded one week ago. It's in 10 parts, all on that page.
 

ann

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i have a copy, i can have a dvd made for you if that would help.
 

doughowk

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An excellent bio of Smith. The acting was a bit restrained in what I understand of Smith; but it did give a good sense of the man. Too bad PBS hasn't included this video in their American Masters DVD series.
In books I only have the 1969 Aperature edition with an off-the-wall article by Lincoln Kirstein. A.D.Coleman's comments in the video were far more helpful.
 

ann

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great
 

cmo

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Which book about him can you recommend?
 

Jim Jones

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W. Eugene Smith: Shadow and Substance: The Life and Work of an American Photographer by Jim Hughes, published in 1989 by McGraw Hill and available used from several online booksellers. 600 pages of honest and extensively researched information about this complex and driven photographer. It's one of the best biographies of any photographer that I've read, far better than the film, Photography Made Difficult.
 
OP
OP

5stringdeath

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cmo said:
Which book about him can you recommend?
Click to expand...

Aperture also put out a book called "W. Eugene Smith : His Photographs and Notes" which is good ... obviously more visual than biographical.

Just watched the movie again with my class - hah, it is a bit overdramatic but the interviews and such are interesting. I still love it for what it is.
 

Marco B

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There is also an interesting 4 part "The lost pictures of Eugene Smith" video that I linked in the APUG video section under "Photographers". First part here:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Unfortunately, embedding is disabled now on the video (it wasn't), so you can no longer watch it directly from APUG, but you can still use the link to go to the proper YouTube video channel to watch it, because it is still there.
 

cmo

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Jim, thanks for that, I could purchase the book from an american online retailer, and it arrived a few days ago. Since that day I am reading... you are right, this is an amazing book. The only downside is, that it is a biography and does not contain many photos.

So, the next thing on my list is a book containing lots of photos... which do you guys think is a good choice and is printed well enough to show the beauty of Smith's often very dark photos?
 

doughowk

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The Aperature book on W. Eugene Smith contains a nice selection of his images; but it doesn't give a true flavor of his work which is the photo essay. Therefore, I'd suggest a book on a specific topic such as "Dream Street" that explores the topic of Pittsburgh in depth.
 
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