Michael Ackerman’s Smoke begins with a particular encounter. Ackerman met the singer-songwriter and poet known as Benjamin through Smoke, the band Benjamin fronted. Published by l’Axolotl in 2023, the book takes that connection as the basis for a photographic homage. The title thus carries several meanings at once: it identifies Benjamin’s band, recalls the circumstances of the meeting, and establishes the cultural world from which the project emerged.

Benjamin is approached not merely as a performer, but as a figure whose work moved between song and poetry. Rather than attempting a comprehensive account of a musical scene or historical period, Ackerman directs attention toward one person and the creative identity surrounding him. The book’s premise is relational rather than encyclopedic: photography becomes a means of responding to an artist encountered through another art form.

Jem Cohen and Patti Smith are named as contributors, giving the publication a collaborative framework beyond Ackerman’s photographic authorship. Their presence reinforces the book’s position at the intersection of image, music, and writing without displacing its concentrated subject. This combination of focused portraiture and cross-disciplinary participation is central to Smoke’s distinct character.

The 136-page volume measures 21.5 by 28 centimetres. Its documented first edition comprised 700 copies. For collectors, its significance rests not on speculative claims of rarity, but on the clarity and specificity of the project: a 2023 artist’s book built around Ackerman’s encounter with Benjamin, shaped as an homage, and accompanied by two named contributors. Within a photobook collection, Smoke offers a closely defined meeting of portraiture, music, poetry, and collaborative publishing.