Evocations of Place: The Photography of Edwin Smith - Tapa dura

Hailed by the poet and architectural historian Sir John Betjeman as "a genius at photography", Edwin Smith (1912-1971) was one of Britain's foremost photographers. At the time of his death, he was widely regarded as without peer in his sensitive renditions of historic architecture and his empathetic evocations of place. The recurrent themes of Smith's work - a concern for the fragility of the environment; an acute appreciation of the need to combat cultural homogenization by safeguarding regional diversity; and a conviction that architecture should be rooted in time and place - are as pressing today as when Smith first framed them in his elegant compositions. By providing the first in-depth survey of his work, this book introduces Smith's poignant imagery to a new generation. "Evocations of Place" is the first study to put his work into its photographic and cultural context and includes many rarely seen images as well as previously unpublished correspondence.

Robert Elwall is Photographs Curator at the British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects, London. His acclaimed book Building with Light: The International History of Architectural Photography (Merrell, 2004) was shortlisted for the prestigious CICA and Banister Fletcher book awards.