Background
Edwin Smith was born on May 15, 1912, in London, United Kingdom. The only child of Edwin Stanley Smith, a clerk, and his wife Lily Beatrice, (née Gray).
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(Completed at the end of the 13th century by the wool merc...)
Completed at the end of the 13th century by the wool merchant, Lawrence of Ludlow, this is an important example of one of the earliest fortified houses of England. The gatehouse was added in 1640.
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1961
(The style of this Medieval church is Early English while ...)
The style of this Medieval church is Early English while the fittings are Georgian.
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1966
Edwin Smith was born on May 15, 1912, in London, United Kingdom. The only child of Edwin Stanley Smith, a clerk, and his wife Lily Beatrice, (née Gray).
After leaving school Edwin Smith was educated at the Northern Polytechnic (now London Metropolitan Universit), transferring to the architectural school at the age of sixteen. Edwin Smith won a scholarship to the Architectural Association, but gave up his course and worked as a draughtsman for several years.
Edwin Smith became a freelance photographer in 1935, working briefly for Vogue as a fashion photographer. However, he concentrated his artistic efforts on subjects such as the mining community of Ashington in Northumberland, the docks of Newcastle, and circuses and fairgrounds around London. Having taken up photography just prior to World War I (1939), Edwin Smith soon became a regular contributor to The Saturday Book.
An architectural photographer, Edwin Smith worked with neither an assistant nor a light meter, producing black-and-white and color prints that were often dramatic and well detailed.
Edwin Smith was also a writer, producing photographic handbooks, including All the Photo Tricks (1940), for Focal Press. But it is for the photo books he is best remembered. These include: English Parish Churches (1952), English Cottages and Farmhouses (1954), The English House Through Seven Centuries (1968), Pompeii and Herculanaeum (1960), Ireland (with Micheal Mac Liammoir) (1966), Rome: From its Foundation to the Present (1971) and England (1971).
Edwin Smith was also a prolific artist. He produced water and oil paintings, drawings, linocuts, and woodcuts throughout his life, and in later years at Saffron Walden, he drew up architectural plans for local properties.
Edwin Smith became ill in the spring of 1971, but cancer was not diagnosed until a few weeks before his death on 29 December. It was only after his death that exhibitions of Smith's work appeared, with a monograph finally being published in 1984.
Stokesay Castle, Shropshire
(Completed at the end of the 13th century by the wool merc...)
1959St Lawrence, Didmarton, Gloucestershire
(The style of this Medieval church is Early English while ...)
1962Roofscape, Whitby, North Yorkshire
Basilica of San Marco, Venice
196135 Hallam’s Lane, Chilwell near Nottingham
1937Palace Pier, Brighton
1952Herring girls gutting fish on the quayside, North Shields
1930Campo San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
1961Kentish Town station, London
1936Skandia cinema, Stockholm
1966In 1935 Edwin Smith married Rosemary Ansell, but the marriage ended in divorce two years later. By this time Smith was living with Olive Cook, whom he married in 1954.
