Minamata by Eugene Smith and Eileen M. Smith. 

(1975)

First Canadian edition. First impression. Published simultaneously by Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited. 

192 pages.

This is a well-loved medium format soft back in good condition. Shelf and reading wear to the cover and spine, and page block. The spine is coming away from the cover, but binding firm. Some minor age toning to the extremities of the pages. Laminate coating on the cover has started to chip. Previous owner inscription on the inside cover page. 

About

When Smith arrived in Minamata in 1971 he had already covered the bloody invasions of Tara-wa, Guam and Iwo Jima as LIFE’s WWII correspondent and had produced genre-defining photo essays. But the story made in Minamata would be his last, and arguably most influential, work. Smith became interested in traveling to the city after he was contacted by a member of the Minamata movement. He and his partner Aileen Mioko Smith packed up Smith’s loft in New York, travelled to Tokyo and, now married, relocated to Minamata along with their recently recruited assistant, Takeshi Ishikawa. 

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’.”