W. Eugene Smith
W. Eugene Smith
William Eugene Smith, was an American photojournalist, renowned for the dedication he devoted to his projects and his uncompromising professional and ethical standards. Smith developed the photo essay into a sophisticated visual form. His most famous studies included brutally vivid World War II photographs, the clinic of Dr Schweitzer in French Equatorial Africa, the city of Pittsburgh, the dedication of an American country doctor and a nurse midwife, and the pollution which damaged the health of the residents of Minamata...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhotographer
Date of Birth30 December 1918
CountryUnited States of America
Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.
The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera.
I didn’t write the rules. Why would I follow them?
The journalistic photographer can have no other than a personal approach; and it is impossible for him to be completely objective. Honest—yes. Objective—no.
I've never made any picture, good or bad, without paying for it in emotional turmoil.
If I can get them to think, get them to feel, get them to see, then I've done about all that I can as a teacher.
I am constantly torn between the attitude of the conscientious journalist who is a recorder and interpreter of the facts and of the creative artist who often is necessarily at poetic odds with the literal facts.
Many claim I am a photographer of tragedy. In the greater sense I am not, for though I often photograph where the tragic emotion is present, the result is almost invariably affirmative.
Available light is any damn light that is available!
You can't photograph if you're not in love.
In music I still prefer the minor key, and in printing I like the light coming from the dark. I like pictures that surmount the darkness, and many of my photographs are that way. It is the way I see photographically. For practical reasons, I think it looks better in print too.
... to became neighbours and friends instead of journalists. This is the way to make your finest photographs.
I am an idealist. I often feel I would like to be an artist in an ivory tower. Yet it is imperative that I speak to people, so I must desert that ivory tower. To do this, I am a journalist—a photojournalist. But I am always torn between the attitude of the journalist, who is a recorder of facts, and the artist, who is often necessarily at odds with the facts. My principle concern is for honesty, above all honesty with myself…
What use having a great depth of field, if there is not an adequate depth of feeling?