W. Eugene Smith and the Photographic Essay

This is the first in-depth study of one of the most important photojournalists of the postwar period in America. Examining the antecedents for the photo-essay, a genre that Smith perfected, Glenn Willumson closely analyses the four works that he produced for Life magazine, and for which he is best known: 'Country Doctor', 'Spanish Village', 'Nurse-Midwife', and 'Man of Mercy'. In his study of these works, now acknowledged to set the standard by which the photo-essay is judged, Willumson also argues that Smith's essays are significant cultural documents. An engaging account of Smith's career, W. Eugene Smith and the Photographic Essay reproduces his work as it originally appeared in Life, making it accessible to a new generation.