However, one point of clarification:

W. Eugene Smith is a true icon and innovator of 20th-century photojournalism — one of the greatest and most influential practitioners of the discipline of the last 100 years, known particularly for his war photography.

Hope this doesn’t sound jerkish, but: calling him merely a “prolific American photographer” is akin to calling Paul Rand a “prolific American designer.” In fact, I’d be hard-pressed to think of a single designer of any ilk who risked his life and fought to retain the integrity of his work more than Smith did during his lifetime.

The Jazz Loft Project is a fantastic body of work for Smith — but only a single chapter (though certainly a wonderful and sublime one) in a fascinating, unwaveringly humanistic, and at times very dangerous career. For more info, check out the “American Masters” documentary about him, or here’s a good bio (definitely worth reading throughout, as I’m sure many will find his quotes pretty inspiring):

http://www.photo-seminars.com/Fame/eugesmith.htm

Lastly: Knopf released a book of all this stuff — guess I know where my next $40 is going…

http://tinyurl.com/ydmxznt

Anyway: thanks y’all, and keep up the great work!

As a Jazz lover and a lover of history, I have found this project fascinating in many ways. The Jazz Loft Project website itself has images, 2 playlists taken from the tapes, more may be added later, stories of the people and residents of the loft and a blog and a timeline as well.