Howard Smith

Photograph of Amiri Baraka [Leroi Jones] [window]

New York: np, ca. 1960. Silver gelatin print. 6 1/2 x 9 1/4 in. Smith’s green ink stamp to verso. Very good. Item #7404

A photograph of Baraka at a window.

Howard Smith, originally an aspiring poet in his youth, worked as a freelance photographer and journalist. He joined the The Village Voice in 1960, where he wrote the decade-long culture column “Scenes,” which had its finger on the pulse of the burgeoning counterculture. Known as a trend-spotter and tastemaker, Smith was the preeminent reporter on music, art, and subculture. According to Paul Vitello, in Smith’s obituary, “‘Be-in,’ ‘love-in,’ ‘Woodstock,’ ‘head shop,’ ‘Yippies’ and ‘Stonewall’ were words and phrases that many Voice readers saw for the first time, or nearly so, in Scenes.”.

Price: $800.00