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
I think photojournalism is documentary photography with a purpose.
The photographer must bear the responsibility for his work and its effect …[for] photographic journalism, because of its tremendous audience reached by publications using it, has more influence on public thinking than any other branch of photography.
Most photographers seem to operate with a pane of glass between themselves and their subjects. They just can't get inside and know the subject.
... to became neighbours and friends instead of journalists. This is the way to make your finest photographs.
You can't photograph if you're not in love.
Available light is any damn light that is available!
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.
I've never made any picture, good or bad, without paying for it in emotional turmoil.
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.
The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera.
Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.
What's the best type of light? Why that would be available light... and by available light I mean any damn light is available.
With considerable soul searching, that to the utmost of my ability, I have let truth be the prejudice.
My camera, my intentions stopped no man from falling. Nor did they aid him after he had fallen. It could be said that photographs be damned for they bind no wounds. Yet, I reasoned, if my photographs could cause compassionate horror within the viewer, they might also prod the conscience of that viewer into taking action.