Oct 15, 2015 - Sale 2393

Sale 2393 - Lot 155

Price Realized: $ 12,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
SMITH, W. EUGENE (1918-1978)
From "The Country Doctor" series published in LIFE magazine. Oversized (waxed) silver print, 21 5/8x16 1/4 inches (54.9x41.3 cm.), flush mounted to thick board, with the notations "tre waxed" and "possible museum," apparently in Smith's handwriting, in pencil, on mount verso. 1948; printed circa 1953
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Additional Details

The full title reads: "Dr. Ernest Ceriani, a general practitioner in Kremmling, Colorado, stands exhausted in the kitchen of a hospital, his left hand holding a cigarette, suspended over the cup of black coffee on a saucer in his right."

W. Eugene Smith, known for his humanitarian style, spent 23 days in Kremmling, Colorado, chronicling the day-to-day challenges faced by a tireless general practitioner named Dr. Ernest Ceriani. The series of photographs--which depict Dr. Ceriani examining a child's cut foot, administering morphine in the back seat of a car, making house calls, performing an amputation, resetting a broken arm--was an instant success when it was published in LIFE Magazine in 1948, reinforcing Smith as a master of the photo-essay format.

W. Eugene Smith, Master of the Photographic Essay, cat. no. 7:028.