―Photo is a small voice, at best, but sometimes - just sometimes - one photograph or a group of them can lure our senses into awareness. Much depends upon

the viewer; in some, photographs can summon enough emotion to be a catalyst to thought. ‖

-W. Eugene Smith

W. Eugene Smith

By: Angelia Gonzalez

Born in 1918 in Wichita, Kansas.

Age 15 he took his first photographs

for two local newspapers.

Born in 1918 in Wichita, Kansas.

•Age 15 he took his first photographs

for two local newspapers.

Biography

•In 1936 he entered Notre Dame

University in Wichita

•1937 he began working for

News-Week; he was then fired

for refusing to use medium-

format cameras.

•Worked as a war correspondent

for Flying magazine (1942-44)

and then a year later he worked

for Life.

Biography (cont.)

•He was fanatically dedicated to

his mission as a photographer

when he became a full member of

Magnum in 1957.

•A year later Smith died (d.1978)

from a stroke, after moving to

Tucson to teach at the University

of Arizona.

Biography (cont.)

• Born in 1918 and

died from a massive

stroke in 1978 from

a long term

consumption of

drugs and alcohol.

• Eugene Smith‟s

greatest contribution

was during WORLD

WAR II when he

became a war

correspondent for

Ziff-Davis.

WORLD WAR II. The

Pacific Campaign.

November 1943. Tarawa

atoll.

WORLD WAR II. The Pacific Campaign.

27 June 1944. Battle of Saipan Island. US

Marines.

I didn‘t write the rules — why should I

follow them? Since I put a great deal of time

and research to know what I am about? I

ask and arrange if I feel it is legitimate. The

honesty lies in my — the photographer‘s —

ability to understand.

–W. Eugene Smith

Influences. • His creative

outlook and

thinking

came from

his discovery

of the world

of music

which is one

of his major

influences.

• Smith is said

to be one of

the worlds

greatest

photojournali

sts (from the

opinions of

many.)

1969. US jazz trumpeter Miles Davis

Smith‟s photos

showed emotion

and sort of told a

story to them.

He let the ideas

come from the

subject itself

rather than force

them.

He didn‟t just take

a single photo, he

would take groups

of photos in photo

essays.

Importance.

WORLD WAR II. The Pacific Campaign. April 1945. The Battle of Okinawa (Japanese island).

WORLD WAR II. The Pacific

Campaign. June 1944. Battle of

Saipan Island. US Marine holding a

wounded and dying baby found in

the mountains.

‗Country Doctor‘

Colorado. Kremmling. 1948. Dr. Ernest Guy Ceriani, a country doctor going to visit his patients in their remote villages.

In the backseat of a car, Dr. Ceriani assists a shot of morphine to a 60-year-old tourist from Chicago, seen here with her grandson, who was suffering from a mild heart disturbance.

‗Country Doctor‘

1948. Dr. Ceriani with Lee Marie Wheatly, a two and a half year old child who needed emergency treatment after having been kicked in the head by a horse.

“Never have I found the limits of the photographic potential. Every horizon, upon being reached, reveals another beckoning in the distance. Always, I am on the threshold.”

-W. Eugene Smith

‗Nurse Midwife‘

• Maude gets ready in kitchen by

lamplight(top)

• Annabelle Fuller was seriously

cut in an auto accident and

Maude had given her first aid.

Now the girl returns to have

her dressings changed.(left)

Inside a church.

Maude inspects a

patient behind a

bedsheet screen.

Jazz musician

Thelonious

Monk. Circa

1965.

Singer and musician Bob Dylan. 1965.

“I was after a set of pictures, so that when people looked at

them they would say, „This is war‟--that the people who were

in the war would believe that I had truthfully captured what

they had gone through... I worked in the framework that war is

horrible. I want to carry on what I have tried to do in these

pictures. War is a concentrated unit in the world and these

things are clearly and cleanly seen. Things like race

prejudice, poverty, hatred and bigotry are sprawling things in

civilian life, and not so easy to define as war.” –W. Eugene

Smith

• "W. Eugene Smith." Magnum Photos. 2012 Magnum Photos, 22 June 2012.

Web. 19 March 2013.

• "W. Eugene Smith." Photo Seminars. N/A. Web. 17 March 2013.

• "W. Eugene Smith." About. 2013 About.com. Web. 16 March 2013.

• "W. Eugene Smith." Life Magazine. Life.com, Web. 14 Mar 2013.

• "W Eugene Smith." Brainy Quote. brainyquote.com, Web. 18 Mar 2013.

Works Cited