Minamata

Minimata is the story of how one of the world's greatest photojournalists, W. Eugene Smith, and his wife, followed the victims of a massive lead poisoning of a rural Japanese city, and how the people there tirelessly fought to bring both the responsible company executives and their complicit government bureaucrats to justice. Minimata came to my attention about 40 years ago, when LIFE published a series of shocking photographs of the city - particularly one of a Japanese mother tenderly cradling her brain-damaged and disfigured daughter in a bath. Few journalists have ever stayed with a story as long as the Smiths did here. Read Minimata and the images and message will stay with you for life.

This book will never be reprinted, for reasons described in another review. The chances are that there may never be anything like it again either. This was an act of heroism by a photographer who risked everything and was deprived of his health and his life for doing so.It is also one of the most remarkable pieces of documentary photography that's ever been compiled. The intimacy of the pictures of the afflicted and the drama of the lighting are merged in a burst of sympathy that never gives way to sentimentality. I own an autographed edition and just the thought that Gene Smith's hand actually held this book makes me tremble.

There's only one word to describe this book, and that is incredible. In many ways the culmination of the brilliant career of photojournalist W. Eugene Smith, it's a two-year study of the effects and repercussions from mercury poisoning on a small fishing village in Japan via toxic waste being dumped into the sea. As searing as it is respectful, Smith (with text by his wife Aileen) takes us into their world and follows the story from the victims to the court battles over culpability. As his last major work, and one that arguably cost him his life (he was severely beaten by corporate goons while working on Minamata, an attack from which he never really recovered), it's astonishing that this book hasn't been reprinted. But even if it is, it will be interesting to see how a new edition is handled - the family of the subjects in Smith's famous "mother bathing girl" image has requested it no longer be published anywhere, and his estate is complying with their wishes.It's out of print for now, but track a copy down. You won't be sorry.