W. Eugene Smith - any idea what cameras he used?

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spystyle

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Hello from Maine,

This may be a dumb question but I was very curious, after thumbing through the photo book "Dream Street" (click), if anyone knew what cameras famous photographer W. Eugene Smith used?

I tried Googling it but to no avail. I thought it was a longshot but maybe one of you well-read fellas might know.

Thanks,
Craig
 
I imagine that he would have used the professional quality 35mm rangefinders of his era. I've seen at least one image of Mr. Smith at work with a couple of Zeiss Contax's dangling from his neck.
 
He used everything. I know he sometimes shot with a Rollei, as well as Nikon rangefinder. I believe he used a Leica screwmount for the "doctor" series (for Life magazine), but later he used Nikon SLRs as well. There are photos of him absolutely covered in cameras, with a few rangefinders and an SLR.
 
spystyle said:
Hello from Maine,

This may be a dumb question but I was very curious, after thumbing through the photo book "Dream Street" (click), if anyone knew what cameras famous photographer W. Eugene Smith used?

I tried Googling it but to no avail. I thought it was a longshot but maybe one of you well-read fellas might know.

Thanks,
Craig
Click to expand...
I know he used Minolta SR slr cameras in photographing the Minamata mercury poisoning series and I seen pics of him with what looks to be a Barnack Leica( he used a Barnack Leica with Flash for the Spanish villiage series) and an other pic with him using a Kodak Medalist.

I get the feeling that W Eugene Smith could not care less what camera he used, a great photographer, but his magic touch was certainly in his printing.
He was one of the best talents in the darkroom.
 
Don't forget those cool Olympus Pen ads he was in! Not sure if actually used them...

oops... should have looked at Fred's links...
 
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Hey thanks for the replies fellas, all very interesting :)

Does anyone know what camera this is?



Is it the Nikon F with waist-level finder?
 
Smith used so many cameras because he often was broke and would pawn off equipment simply to make ends meet. When he got paid he would buy whatever struck his fancy as useful at the time. A good lesson there, I think, when I spend too much time thinking about equipment and not enough shooting! The Olympus Pen F stuff was an endorsement deal and I, too, wonder how much he actually used it.
 
This one is classic :D


Victoriafotografa.jpg
 
As others have stated, Smith used everything. When he started getting into photography, he used an old Kodak Autographic with a packfilm back that belonged to his mother. As he progressed, he purchased a 4X5 Graflex SLR, then started used 4X5 Speed Graphics. All of this occured during high school. Eventually, he also acquired an Ikoflex, a Rolleiflex (Smith preferred the lens on the Ikoflex), a Super Ikomat, and a Zeiss Contax. At a young age, Smith was already winning photo contests promoted by Zeiss Ikon, which is partly how he acquired a few of these Zeiss products. It wasn't until his college days that he became interested in the Leica cameras available at the time.

During his professional career, as can be seen in the photos given earlier, he continued using just about anything. Minolta SLR, Leica M, Rolleiflex, Olympus Pen, etc.

He's a good example of how the equipment really doesn't matter!

This information comes from the book W. Eugene Smith : Shadow and Substance : the Life and Work of an American Photographer. So, if you want some more information on this photographer, it's worth a look.
 
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