SHREVEPORT – “Wow.”
That was Thurman C. Smith’s reaction to having his life’s photography work accepted into the Northwest Louisiana Archives in a ceremony Thursday on the third floor of the Noel Memorial Library.
The 98-year-old spent seven decades looking through the lens starting in the 1940s and is arguably the best photographer in Shreveport’s history.
“Wow” could also describe the reaction of head archivist Dr. Laura McLemore, who signed the agreement Thursday to house the Thurman C. Smith Photography Collection in a digital format and preserve a key piece of Shreveport’s visual history.
“We’ve been looking forward to this for so long now because these photos are a marvelous visual history of our area,” McLemore said. “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 family name in the Shreveport photo business with Thurman and his son Scot.
Aside from his studio work, Smith took photos all around Shreveport, capturing its historic places and hidden gems throughout the decades. The thousands of photos include aerial photographs of LSUS during its construction and expansion in the 1960s and 1970s, kids packed into a record store and photos of Shreveport’s skyline.
Scot Smith said the art of photography use to be a lot more than just “mashing a button.”
“I had always admired my Dad’s work for its technical excellence,” Scot Smith said. “There was a time when photography required extensive knowledge of cameras and lenses, factoring in light and balancing flash, a lot of chemistry involved in developing film, and a lot 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 process of getting these photographs to the Northwest Louisiana Archives wasn’t as simple as taking a few truckloads up to the LSUS campus.
Twin Blends photographers Mark and Mike Mangham spent three years digitizing and curating the collection from “hundreds and hundreds of boxes of negatives” so the Archives could house and display Smith’s work.
The Archives became aware of the collection’s existence “two days before the COVID-19 pandemic” closed down LSUS’s campus, but the Mangums, the Smiths and Archives staff eventually reconnected and facilitated the collection’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 said. “We went through this process with the Robert Menasco Collection, and it culminated in this project.
“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 their work in the preservation of his work.
Smith’s photos has been featured in the Twin Blends popular social media campaign, featuring a photo of Shreveport in the past compared to a present-day photo of the same place.
Smith’s vast amount of photos are accompanied by images from Film Arbor Studios, which dates back to the 1920s. He acquired these photos in a 1953 merger with the photo finishing company, which at the time was part of Woody’s Camera World, which had camera stores across the city and region.
“What a wonderful gift not just to LSUS but to Northwest Louisiana,” said LSUS Chancellor Dr. Robert Smith. “The Northwest Louisiana Archives will maintain this incredible collection 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 present a portion of the Thurman C. Smith Photography Collection in an exhibition this coming spring.
Interested in seeing historic Shreveport photos now?
The Archives is displaying an exhibition titled “Lens on the Past, Local History in Photographs” through early October.
Images start in the late 1800s and progress throughout the decades as they wrap around the third floor atrium.
The Northwest Louisiana Archives is a rich repository of historical documents, manuscripts and photos totaling more than 1,000 collections that detail the history of the Red River region.
