BIOGRAPHY BY JIM HUGHES

 
W. EUGENE SMITH: SHADOW & SUBSTANCE, The Life and Work of an American
Photographer, by Jim Hughes (600 pp, 32 pp photographs, pub. by
McGraw-Hill, NY, 1989) examines the passionate, haunted and brilliant man
whose quest for perfection resulted in an unparalleled photographic legacy.
Smith's searing images of World War II and his later, subtly structured
photographic essays for LIFE magazine made him the standard-bearer among
photojournalists, and influenced how a sizable public perceived the times
in which it lived. The issues Smith confronted were large: life and death,
love and hate, good and evil. The thread that ran through all of his work
was the indomitability of the human spirit. After more than a decade of
research and 300 interviews with family, friends, associates, and enemies,
award-winning editor and writer Jim Hughes brings into focus the shadow and
substance of a creative genius in this landmark biography. 
 
SOME EXCERPTED REVIEWS: 
 
``Jim Hughes' masterful and meticulous biography shows how Smith, through a
life of almost unbearable psychological and physical agony, was able to
sustain that level of obsession that separates the artist from the
artisan....A compassionate and fair biography that is compelling in its
narrative...an often sad, very human story, gracefully told.''
 -- R. H. Miller, The Louisville (Ky) Courier-Journal. 
 
``A thorough and highly readable biography of this creative and tormented
man....This biography, 12 years in the making, is a colossal
achievement...and a good read, too.''  -- Marianne Fulton, Associated Press 
 
``The account is -- without argument -- a history of the craft, as well as
of the man.''  -- Toren Beasley, Syracuse (NY) Herald-American 
 
``Required reading.'' -- Russell Hart, American Photo 
 
``Smith rose to prominence as a member of an elite cadre of camera-toting
journalists who roamed the world for such mass-circulating magazines as
LIFE and LOOK....It seems like a lost world now, but Jim Hughes brings it
to life.'' -- Douglas Balz, Chicago Tribune 
 
``The author paints a totally revealing portrait of a complicated
personality and proves to a degree the old notion that truth is indeed
stranger than fiction....The book is a gripping story for anyone,
photographer or not.'' -- Anne Price, Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate 
 
``Hughes' book reads breathlessly, like a Chandler mystery novel, except
that the murders here are mainly symbolic...inflicted by Smith
psychologically on himself, his family and friends as a sacrifice to
Goddess Photography, or to an image of himself he could not measure up to.''
-- Carole Naggar, Camera International 
 
``A thorough biography...that leads us through a life as harrowing as the
great American photographer's black-and-white images of war and other
madness.'' 
-- Kirkus Reviews 
 
``The most thoroughly researched and arguably the best written photo bio
ever....A grand, epic, landmark work that ranks with Robert Caro's recent
biographies of Lyndon Johnson and Robert Moses. Both are models of what a
biography can and should be.''  -- Fred W. McDarrah, The Picture Professional 
 
For further information, please send SASE or e-mail to: 
 
    Jim Hughes 
    22 Strong Place 
    Brooklyn, NY 11231 
 
    Internet: jahjr@pipeline.com