One of the most enlightening documentaries to run this year has been the six-part BBC4 series “The Genius of Photography,” which continues its run today and Thursday. It’s introduced me to a range of figures–most of whom I wasn’t familiar with–that shaped a medium I don’t know enough about. What more can you ask from the crystal bucket?

One figure who held my attention in particular was W. Eugene Smith, who, from the gritted-teeth accounts of him offered by his contemporaries, seemed not to be the easiest of men to work with. The information that he occasionally drank the alcoholic fluids used to develop his photos and was obsessed with William Faulkner supports the image of a fairly “volatile” temperament.

The programme also recounts how Smith nearly bankrupted the fledgling Magnum photo agency when he embarked on a project to produce 100 photographs in three weeks to celebrate the city of Pittsburgh’s first centenary. This short project evolved into “a three year commitment as he attempted to describe, understand and better the world he saw around him with no less than 21,000 photographic moments.”

I suppose Smith’s photos resonated with me because one of them, “Dream Street” was used on the cover of an omnibus edition of John Updike’s “Rabbit” novels–700 pages that capture with preternatural ability the sights, smells, and texture of American life over three decades.

Smith’s images of Pittsburgh do something similar to Updike’s words. Serving as a proxy for the viewer/reader, they create the definitive perception of a time and a place we were not able to witness at first hand.

For example, take a look at this superlative image of the Pittsburgh skyline at night and tell me that this isn’t also your America of the 1950s?

A selection of Smith’s images are available from the excellent Magnum website.