Recently, I was contacted by Murray Smith who had visited my website. He asked me if I would be interested in looking at several of his self-published monographs. I agreed and soon received a package containing a few books and a couple of articles on photography that Murray thought I would be interested in reading. Murray’s books were produced prior to the popularity of just-in-time services such as Blub, so the cost of production was much higher than it would be if they were made today.  This is a supreme testament to the photographer’s dedication to recreate his vision in book form so that a lasting statement can be shared with others.

After I had a chance to review Murray’s books in detail I contacted him and we had several nice conversations concerning his thoughts on photography in general, the making of these books and my thoughts concerning them, and his goals and objectives moving forward.  Based on our discussions Murray offered to send me some other books of his work.  Taken as a whole the books are of high quality, both in terms of production value and content, and display different facets of the artist’s conceptual thinking. One very interesting concept that appears in more than one book is what Murray calls “recapitulation” where single images that have been presented on previous pages are then clustered together in groupings that make “poetic” sense. It is something I have not seen done before and is quite interesting!

I am most appreciative of the opportunity Murray gave me to see his work and excited that we met through this website. Murray is a great example of photographers who are producing work in book form that deserves to be seen.  Because of their courage, commitment and drive they are making the financial and psychic investments that enables their dreams to become reality.

Thank you Murray!

For more information on Murray Smith’s work and books go to: http://www.murraysmithphotographer.com