This text was written by Olive Cook after Edwin's death, to accompany a major exhibition of his work at Impressions Gallery, York.

Although Edwin Smith made a name for himself as a photographer and writers as diverse as Sir John Betjeman, John Piper and Cecil Beaton praised him as "a genius at photography", "a great artist" and "an understanding and loving connoisseur of his subject", he became a photographer by chance not choice.

The listing below is revised as and when I discover yet another book that Edwin Smith or Olive Cook produced or contributed to. However, this list is nearing completion; all the main titles are captured here and many of them I have in my collection. Some images of the covers of some of these can be viewed here.

If you know of any that are not listed below then please let me know. Where copies of these books are still in print, links are given.

The following article by Nigel Weaver appeared in the Winter 2004 edition of Matrix (No. 24) and is reproduced by permission of the Editor. It was also published in the Fry Art Gallery July 2005 Newsletter.
Matrix is a review for printers and bibliophiles, published in an edition of 800 periodically by the Whittington Press.

EDWIN SMITH (1912 - 1971) is justifiably well remembered as an architectural and topographical photographer, and yet throughout his fifty-nine years he thought of himself primarily as an artist. His success as a photographer, and the failure of exhibitions in his life-time of his works of art, meant that he died largely disappointed. "I am the only artist", he used to say wryly, "who has a complete collection of his own work."

This list of exhibitions at which work by Edwin Smith was shown is by no means complete, and doubtless contains some inaccuracies. Even Olive Cook, with her remarkable memory, was not able to provide a complete list.

The compilation has been drawn from many sources; much is from my own collection of catalogues, press releases, private view cards, notes, etc. The dates in bold represent solo exhibitions; the others were group shows that included Edwin's work. Recent research carried out by myself and Brian Human of the Olive Cook papers held at Newnham College library, Cambridge, has shed some new light on dates and locations of exhibitions.

In 1992, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Edwin Smith was held at the Fry Gallery, Saffron Walden. Ever since his death, Olive Cook had tried to promote more interest in Edwin's non-photographic output - which was prolific but largely unrecognised during his lifetime.

Edwin Smith used to say that he was "the only artist with a complete collection of his own work".