Has anyone watched "The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith"?

I just watched it. I had no idea what to expect but it combined two of my interests. Jazz and photography. I'm sure others here are familiar with Gene's work, he was an amazing artist, but he is new to me. As far as his photography, one of the things that piqued my interest was the few minutes the film spent investigating how he created his prints. They go into a little bit of detail about how he slightly underexposed his images then used a ferrocyanide bleach to force the highlights. For all the purists here who think the only correct type of image is one that comes straight out of the camera, it might just open your eyes.

But that is the least of it. The film explores the life of a quirky, imperfect man who was consumed by his art which was fueled by amphetamines and huge amounts of other people's money. You have to see the movie to understand, but somehow he managed to maintain this decrepit, falling-down-on-itself loft inhabited with many of the big names in 1950s jazz, the place packed with sound recording equipment that recorded several years worth of goings-on, all the while shooting hundreds of thousands of photos and processing them, is incredible. And not just ordinary prints but art.

Catch the movie if you get a chance. It's worth a few minutes of your time if you are interested in the history of the art of photography.

The New York I grew up in with its specialized districts like the electronics stores displaced by the World Trade Center, musical instrument stores on 48th St between 6th and 7th Ave, the fur district south of Penn Station are all gone, making the city (for me) a much less desirable place to visit. Now it looks like the final nail in the coffin is driven by the pandemic which has resulted in the closing of the many small authentic ethnic restaurants. I left the city for the country in 1968, just in time so far as I'm concerned.