Saturday, April 12, 2025

My Meal with Kevin Eugene Smith

Tonight in Bangkok I had the privilege of sharing a meal with Kevin Eugene Smith. The son of the legendary LIFE Photographer W. Eugene Smith. Smith is an idol of mine who helped lead me into social documentary photography. His photograph "TOMOKO AND MOTHER IN HER BATH" I consider to be the greatest photograph ever made. It has inspired me, my entire life.

It was a fun evening and Kevin even paid for the meal, very generous and decent of him. Later I helped him a bit with some shopping. We will probably meet again at some point.

Kevin is a very interesting, exceptional and intelligent man in his own right and of course when he spoke of his dad and his dad’s work, I just ate that all up with eager ears. Every now and again a name like Johnny Depp (starred as W. Eugene Smith in the recent film Minamata), Nick Ut (famous photographer) and James Nachtwey (famous photographer) was dropped into the conversation to spice things up. 

A truly fun and memorable evening.