Edwin Smith (born Edwin George Herbert Smith) was an English photographer best known for his distinctive vignettes of English gardens, landscapes, and architecture. In 1935 he became a freelance photographer, working as a fashion photographer for Vogue for a short time. However, Smith 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.
In 1954, Smith married artist and writer Olive Cook, whom he authored or contributed to numerous books during his lifetime. A tireless promoter of Smith’s work, Cook left her husband’s archive of 60,000 negatives to the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Robert Elwall Photographs Collection in 2002.
Take a look at Smith’s stunning photography through these 28 gorgeous black-and-white pictures below:
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| Kentish Town station, London |
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| Gateshead |
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| Herring girls gutting fish on the quayside, North Shields |
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| 35 Hallam’s Lane, Chilwell near Nottingham |
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| Church Farm Approved School, East Barnet, London |
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| Southend-on-Sea, Essex |
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| Palace Pier, Brighton |
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| Central markets, West Smithfield, London |
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| Clothes line in Glencaple, Scotland |
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| Dumbiedykes from Salisbury Crags |
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| Fragment of the colossal statue of Constantine the Great, Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome |
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| Night street cleaning near St Paul’s Cathedral, London |
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| ‘Ideal’ fish & chip shop, London |
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| Roofscape, Whitby, North Yorkshire |
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| Back-street garden, Camden Town, London |
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| Tulip staircase, Queens House, Greenwich, London |
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| The colonnade, St Peter’s Square, Rome |
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| Campo San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice |
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| Villa Garzoni Collodi, Tuscany |
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| St Lawrence Didmarton, Gloucestershire |
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| Farm in the mountains between Auletta and Potenza, Italy |
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| Two boys on a doorstep, Kilkenny, Ireland |
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| St Columba’s Wells, Londonderry, Northern Ireland |
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| Skandia cinema, Stockholm |
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| Lyne Church Peebles, Scotland |
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| Bodnant Garden, Conwy, Wales |
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| Pincio gardens overlooking Rome |
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| View from the Palazzo dello Sport, Rome |