About this artwork
In 1955 W. Eugene Smith, one of America’s preeminent photojournalists, had just resigned from Life magazine and joined the photographers’ collective Magnum. He accepted a commission to spend three weeks in Pittsburgh to produce 100 photographs for a book celebrating the city’s bicentennial. Instead, he ended up staying for a year, making subsequent visits, and ultimately shooting some 17,000 photographs in what became the most ambitious photo-essay of his career. “To portray a city is beyond ending,” he wrote. “To begin such an effort is in itself a grave conceit.” With street names like “Dream” and “Pride” (seen here), the Rust Belt city—striving, hopeful, disillusioned—became a visual metaphor for the contra-dictions of 1950s America.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Photography and Media
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Artist
- W. Eugene Smith
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Title
- Children at Colwell and Pride Streets, Hill District
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Place
- United States (Artist's nationality)
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Date
- Made 1955
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Medium
- Gelatin silver print, from "Pittsburgh"
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Dimensions
- Image/paper: 34.9 × 23.2 cm (13 3/4 × 9 3/16 in.); Mount: 51 × 40.5 cm (20 1/8 × 16 in.)
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Credit Line
- The Mary and Leigh Block Endowment Fund
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Reference Number
- 1990.352
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
