Minamata: The Story of the Poisoning of a City. And of The people Who Choose to Carry the Burden of Courage

Various photographers
Minamata: The Story of the Poisoning of a City. And of The people Who Choose to Carry the Burden of Courage

Photographs: W. Eugene Smith, Aileen M. Smith

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart, Winston

192 pages

Year: 1975

Price: 35 €

Comments: Paperback binding softcover, plastic overcoat, first edition, 29 x 23.5 cm, in good condition other than a few scratches on the cover with a few stains inside with a water mark in the corner of the first pages (see picture) and a smoke odor, and few curlings. Black and white photographs and texts.

A photo is a small voice, at best, but sometimes — just sometimes — one photograph or a group of them can lure our senses into awareness. Much depends upon the viewer; in some, photographs can summon enough emotion to be a catalyst to thought.

The photo-essay and subsequent book, was a collaboration between Smith and his then wife Aileen M. Smith, whose photographs are also featured below. The couple planned to stay for three months but ended up staying three years. Of course it was very sensitive, we didn’t go barging in, says Aileen, who photographed alongside Smith on the project and co-authored the resulting book. We lived there, got to know the people, and photographed. The victims were receptive; the feeling was: ‘We want the world to know.