Northwest Louisiana Archives accepts Thurman C. Smith Photography Collection in historic ceremony

SHREVEPORT – “Wow.”

That was Thurman C. Smith’s response to having his life’s images work accepted into the Northwest Louisiana Archives in a ceremony Thursday on the third ground of the Noel Memorial Library.

The 98-year-old spent seven a long time wanting by way of the lens beginning within the Forties and is arguably the very best photographer in Shreveport’s historical past.

“Wow” may additionally describe the response of head archivist Dr. Laura McLemore, who signed the settlement Thursday to deal with the Thurman C. Smith Photography Collection in a digital format and protect a key piece of Shreveport’s visible historical past.

“We’ve been looking forward to this for so long now because these photos are a marvelous visual history of our area,” McLemore stated. “Shreveport has been blessed with a lot of wonderful commercial and professional photographers, but (Smith) stands at the peak of those photographers.”

Smith Photography was a household title within the Shreveport photograph enterprise with Thurman and his son Scot.

Aside from his studio work, Smith took images throughout Shreveport, capturing its historic locations and hidden gems all through the a long time. The 1000’s of images embrace aerial images of LSUS throughout its development and enlargement within the Sixties and Seventies, youngsters packed right into a report retailer and images of Shreveport’s skyline.

Scot Smith stated the artwork of images use to be much more than simply “mashing a button.”

“I had always admired my Dad’s work for its technical excellence,” Scot Smith stated. “There was a time when images required in depth information of cameras and lenses, factoring in gentle and balancing flash, loads of chemistry concerned in growing movie, and loads of optics and photographic paper in making a print.

“What these photographs represent as far as skill, craftsmanship and knowledge is unparalleled. It would have been a horrible mistake to have these photos end up in a landfill. I’ve been haunted by that possibility, but now that burden is off my heart and my dad’s life’s work has a home.”

The means of getting these images to the Northwest Louisiana Archives wasn’t so simple as taking a number of truckloads as much as the LSUS campus.

Twin Blends photographers Mark and Mike Mangum spent three years digitizing and curating the gathering from “hundreds and hundreds of boxes of negatives” so the Archives may home and show Smith’s work.

The Archives grew to become conscious of the gathering’s existence “two days before the COVID-19 pandemic” closed down LSUS’s campus, however the Mangums, the Smiths and Archives employees ultimately reconnected and facilitated the gathering’s digitization and donation.

“We’re very honored to have been able to do this, and the (NWLA Archives) trained us to be where we’re at now,” Mike Mangum stated. “We went by way of this course of with the Robert Menasco Collection, and it culminated on this undertaking.

“Thurman C. Smith put his life into this work, and these photos are very historic. There are thousands of incredible photos, and we have a hard drive that has 1,500 folders filled with high-definition photos. This man has basically saved Shreveport history.”

Smith thanked the Mangums, his son Scot, and the Archives for his or her work within the preservation of his work.

Smith’s images has been featured within the Twin Blends widespread social media marketing campaign, that includes a photograph of Shreveport up to now in comparison with a present-day photograph of the identical place.

Smith’s huge quantity of images are accompanied by pictures from Film Arbor Studios, which dates again to the Twenties. He acquired these images in a 1953 merger with the photograph ending firm, which on the time was a part of Woody’s Camera World, which had digicam shops throughout the town and area.

“What a wonderful gift not just to LSUS but to Northwest Louisiana,” stated LSUS Chancellor Dr. Robert Smith. “The Northwest Louisiana Archives will keep this unimaginable assortment in perpetuity.

“As a relative newcomer to the city, it’s wonderful to look back and see what this city looked like 40 and more years ago.”

The Archives will current a portion of the Thurman C. Smith Photography Collection in an exhibition this coming spring.

Interested in seeing historic Shreveport images now?

The Archives is displaying an exhibition titled “Lens on the Past, Local History in Photographs” by way of early October.

Images begin within the late 1800s and progress all through the a long time as they wrap across the third ground atrium.

The Northwest Louisiana Archives is a wealthy repository of historic paperwork, manuscripts and images totaling greater than 1,000 collections that element the historical past of the Red River area.