No Smoking

by Luc Sante

Description by OLDIES.com:

No Smoking is a tribute to smoking in the 20th century told by author Luc Sante (Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York) mostly through b&w and color photographs and a few words. The 20th century created, promoted, and glorified the cigarette and then suddenly declared war on it.

For decades, smoking has been associated with freedom, elegance, or insolence. Born in the late 19th century and heavily demonized in the early 21th, the cigarette's history coincides with a century of glamour and industry. Today, in most Western countries smoking is considered a provocation, a shameful urge - almost uncool. No Smoking is a social retrospective on the cigarette - its momentous birth, its alluring peak, its disreputable downfall.