Eugene Smith explained that errant light practically ruined his photograph of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, taken at his missionary hospital in Gabon, in west central Africa. Days in the darkroom, Smith said, were needed to produce one good print from what he described as a severely fogged piece of film. A copy negative of that print was used to make all subsequent prints. “The copy negative is a little harsh,” said Smith, “but I can get a good print from this negative in an hour instead of five days and five nights.”
In truth, frame #38 (far right, top negative in strip) has no defect. Nor does it show a hand and a saw, which have appeared in silhouette at the bottom of the picture ever since it first appeared in Life magazine in 1954.
It seems likely Smith added these elements to his photograph from other negatives in order to improve his picture’s composition. It does not alter the picture’s content in any significant way, but the editors of Life, with their journalistic bias, would not have published a composite photograph. That is presumably why Smith chose not describe exactly what he’d done.
John Loengard, Celebrating the Negative is available to museums as a touring exhibition from Curatorial Assistance.
http://www.curatorial.org/traveling-exhibitions#/johnloengard/
Book
Celebrating the Negative
by John Loengard
Release in 1994
Published by Arcade Publishing
http://www.johnloengard.com
