Professional photographer Ian Macdonald Smith could hardly believe his good fortune when he was given the opportunity to acquire a repatriated set of negatives of Bermuda scenes shot by renowned German-born American photographer Karl Struss in the late 1950s.

Struss is ranked among the great names of early 20th Century photography, and today his work exists mainly in museums and is rarely seen. His images are highly sought after by collectors, and his auction record is $170,000.

Unlike many owners of valuable artefacts, however, Mr. Macdonald Smith recognised the importance to Bermuda of having the collection here, and he knew from the outset that its beauty and uniqueness should be shared with the public.

Earlier this year, he had special, limited edition prints of selected Struss images made, which were sold at a fund-raising dinner to benefit the Global Archive Foundation, of which Mr. Macdonald Smith is executive director.

The Global Foundation is a registered charity first conceived by Mr. Macdonald Smith in 1994. Its mission is ?to create, through global collaboration, a non-profit, comprehensive digital internet archive of existing and future photographic records which will provide myriad opportunities to monitor, preserve and enhance our finite, delicate environment?.

In addition to the prints, environmentalist Mr. Macdonald Smith also made it his goal, for several reasons, to publish a book of Struss? work, which has just arrived in local stores, and is entitled ?Karl Struss? Bermudian Journey?.

?The pictures needed to be shared,? he says. ?It was a shame to keep them buried, which they were for 45 years. From an ecological standpoint, they demonstrate how the Island has changed dramatically, and how we have eroded our open spaces; and sociologically they are also important because they demonstrate quite succinctly how Bermuda was in 1957.?

At a time when it was fashionable to portray segregated Bermuda as an ?island paradise? with stylised white models in picturesque settings, Struss incorporated ordinary citizens, many of them black, into his images, as well as homes in less picturesque areas.

?His perception was quite refined. He understood injustice as he was a victim of injustice himself. He certainly saw that, racially, things had not changed significantly in the 40 years since his last visit, and demonstrated that quite well,? Mr. Macdonald Smith says.

?He wasn?t trying to make a social statement, but the photographs indicate that he was aware of what was going on and the situation here. His shot of Tribe Road No. 1 at Happy Valley is a great example of that. The shot of the stone cutter is another, as is his series of Front Street, which shows who was on the street.?

Mr. Macdonald Smith also notes that many of the images provide a potted maritime history because they capture the last days of wooden pleasure boats.

Describing Struss? pictorial portrait of Bermuda as ?a little time capsule?, the Bermudian professional photographer observes: ?Here we had a great photographer who was here at a significant time in Bermuda?s history, which he recorded very sensitively and artistically. I think it will become a very important record.?

Mr. Macdonald Smith acknowledges that not everyone may find the book ?fabulous? but says that that is all right.

?The readers can find it interesting from a perspective of how the Island has changed. It is an interesting journal too because we get to see how and where Struss travelled on the Island ? he went from one end to the other.?

Struss? images are also remarkable for their quality and warmth of colour, given that they were made well before important technological advances revolutionised cameras, film, developing chemicals and more.

?The colour has held up very well,? Mr. Macdonald Smith says of the negatives. In printing the book, his aim was ?to preserve the feel and specific colour palette of 1950s colour?.

?Film today has a very different feel. The grain structure is different,? he says. ?The nature of the film and technology were obviously not as refined then as they are now in terms of achieving true colour, which actually makes Struss? images more pictorial, even though I think the colour is absolutely phenomenal.?

Struss, an Academy Award-winning cinematographer, first visited Bermuda in 1912 when he described the Island as ?probably the most beautiful, charming and quaint place? that he had ever visited, ?and as for colour, there is nothing like it anywhere in Europe?.

He returned again in 1913 and 1914 when he spent four months shooting scenes for the illustrated booklet, ?Bermuda: Nature?s Fairyland? for the Bermuda Trade Development Board (forerunner of the Department of Tourism).

When Struss visited here for the fourth time in the late 1950s, it was at a pivotal point in Bermuda?s history. The civil rights movement was gaining momentum, the old order was being forced to change, and tourism was about to enter a stage of massive construction. He travelled about using a three-dimensional or stereoscopic camera and colour film. He had a superb eye for composition, and the soft-quality focus of his images, harking back to his days as a pictorialist, gave his images an artistic quality.

The new, 80-page book is printed on heavy stock with a dark grey fabric cover framing an image of Front Street. It begins with a three-page history of Karl Struss, and goes on to feature 70 full-size images of everything from street scenes, to architecture, beaches, coastlines, sunsets and long-gone ?landmarks? like the and the old Bermudiana Hotel, and more recently the Natural Arches. Nostalgia buffs will delight in seeing again such things as Morris Minor cars, Lambretta scooters and Mobylettes, and even the dicty, custom-made saddle bags which were once for auxiliary cycles. The simple but elegant designs of wooden yachts and sailboats, rustic cedar fencing, towering papaya trees, and dead cedars will also tweak the heartstrings. The book ends with a pictorial reprise of the larger images with identifying captions underneath them.

?Karl Struss? Bermudian Journey? retails for $35, and is available in Hamilton at the Bookmart, the Bermuda Bookstore, Trimingham?s and A.S. Cooper & Sons. In St George?s at the Book Cellar, Robertson?s Drug Store, Bermuda Memories, and the airport gift shops. It can also be found at the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard, and in all hotel shops.