Murray Smith | Photographer

Photographs and Books

Now available for purchase: WALKABOUT

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Rear Dust Jacket

Front Dust Jacket

To View Walkabout:

(Click bottom right icon to make the book full screen; click right arrow to turn pages.)

Interactive Book

Selected Images

The Two Nuns Crossing the Street was taken in San Antonio, Texas. It is my favorite photograph.

The clasped hands, intertwined arms and black and white clothing bring to mind the ancient Yin Yang symbol whereby two opposites or contrary characteristics can exist in harmony and be complementary. They are interconnected.

I doubt that I was aware of the smaller figure with bag emerging from behind and moving in the opposite direction. Pure serendipity.

The above image is a composite of three photographs. The theme is Humility in that the universe is stranger then the human mind can possibly imagine. A mystery and an adventure.

Statement

Born in 1938, I acquired my first serious camera, a Leica M5, in 1971 followed shortly thereafter by a Leitz Focomat 1c enlarger. Inspired by the book Family of Man edited by Edward Steichen, people became my principal photographic interest.
I seek random, non-posed or manipulated images. Progressing by trial and error, my first book, Nexus, was self-published in 1980.
I favor the book format for presenting photographs not merely as a compilation of individual images, but through sequencing to create a form of visual poetry and, hopefully, a contemplative opportunity to “think in pictures”.
In Nexus (examples follow) and later Fuzzy Wuzzy (1982) random photographs are arranged in suites each one followed by a foldout spread that contains and recapitulates the preceding group. The sequential order remains the same, but the overall arrangement is, to a large extent, determined by the photographs themselves.

Book Review for Nexus

This book is an impressive example of photographic book making. The clean and cogent design is complemented by superior printing and quality reproduction. And, beyond the pleasures one can take in the finish, its organization shows considerable insight into the potentials of the book format.
The use of both progression and simultaneity is an exciting exploration of the elements of pace, accumulation and sequential logic which the book format affords. What’s interesting here is that weaker pictures are not ‘propped up’ by stronger ones so much as that all the pictures can acquire meaning through their collective presentation.
Smith’s dual dedication to the fact of life around him and to the mystical search for metaphysical significances, makes the book emanate the west coast ethos.
Roger Baldwin

Recapitulations

Left Click to Enlarge

Background to the Recapitulations:

While thinking about the design of my first book Nexus (a connected group or series), I sought meaningful relationships amongst my random photographs as the basis for their sequencing. At the end of a particular section or suite in the book there is a recapitulation, including a gatefold if necessary for space. In this manner, all images of that suite are brought together and disclosed at once. The sequenctial order remains the same. It is interesting that, in a sense, the images seem to arrange themselves.