He described himself as "an architect by training, a painter by inclination, and a photographer by necessity".

Edwin Smith, the photographer, produced quintessential images of English architecture, landscapes, gardens and interiors. Trained as an architect, he was also a prolific contributor to books covering these and other subjects, often produced in partnership with his wife, the artist and author Olive Cook.

Through my admiration for Edwin's photographic style and approach, I was fortunate to meet and get to know Olive in the late 1980s. We became good friends. For many years, I became Olive's printer-of-choice for Edwin's work, which was still much sought after for exhibition and book illustration. Although I never met Edwin, Olive assured me that I interpreted his negatives in a way that would have met with his full approval and that had he still been around we would undoubtedly have found much in common. The experience of having known Olive is one that you treasure all your life and it was with no small sadness that I learned of her death in 2002.

This part of my web site is dedicated to them both as a 'thank you' for the friendship and encouragement Olive gave me in the years I knew her. Despite his stature within British photographic history, Edwin's photographs were exhibited only once during his lifetime - in 1971, the year he died. Although there have been many exhibitions since, very little information can be found on the internet, hence these pages. He was best known through his books and his photographs continue to be published in new editions today. No one could better describe Edwin, his life and work than Olive and so I have reproduced here the introductory essay she prepared for a touring exhibition called 'Record & Revelation' organized by Impressions Gallery, York, in 1983.

During her lifetime, Olive gave me one of Edwin's cameras as a gift. Unbeknown to her, this Ensign Autorange 820 still had in it the last roll of film Edwin exposed in 1970. I developed and printed this 25-year old film and Olive recalled - as she did with every one of Edwin's photographs - the time and place the pictures were made. There were two series of subjects on the roll and I have reproduced the best of each here. These are most likely the very last photographs that Edwin ever made, certainly the last that he exposed in the Autorange.

In working with Edwin's negatives, I soon realised that the prints he originally made relied on a fair degree of manipulation to get the tone and the mood just so. Some of them I found almost impossible to reproduce exactly using modern photographic print emulsions. When presented with one of my prints that wasn't 'up to scratch' Olive would often say "You haven't quite got it yet dear, have you?'' I knew that meant that it didn't meet her exacting standards and that I'd be back in the darkroom again. Although Edwin was a gifted printer, I sometimes felt that some of the prints he left were not those that he would consider 'finished'. Nevertheless, in Olive's eyes they were the definitive interpretation of his intent and few of my 'improvements' would ever gain her full approval. I resigned myself to this, following Edwin's maxim of 'co-operating with the inevitable'. Whatever else, I learned more about printing in the years I worked on Edwin's negatives than at any other time in my career.

This passage by Olive, describing the location of some of Edwin's photographs, typifies her writing style. It is as evocative to read as the resulting pictures are to view:
"The light was marvellously expressive, a dream-like twilight which revealed every tile and plant and enhanced the strange reality of an incredibly romantic crucked and crooked manor house juxtaposed to prim Georgian cottages and shallow gardens enclosed by fat, closely cut hedges or white railings. This chance of light, moment and mood produced some magical photographs."

Following Olive's death, the Edwin Smith archive was bequeathed to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) where it resides today and to whom copyright on all his photographs now belongs.
The Fry Art Gallery, in Saffron Walden, Essex, UK, holds many examples of work by both Olive and Edwin.