William Eugene Smiths Life - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Eugene Smith was eventually hired as a full-time photographer in two local newspapers. Born in Wichita, Kansas, he used up mainly his profession as a photojournalist working for diverse publishing fields. He began taking photographs in 1932 and early subjects included sports, aviation, and the Dust Bowl. After studying at Notre Dame University for a year he joined the staff of Newsweek. In 1938 Smith became a freelance photographer working for Life Magazine, Collier's Weekly, and the New York Times. In 1942 Smith became a war correspondent and spent most of the next three years covering the Pacific War. His most dramatic photographs were taken during the invasion of Okinawa in April 1945.

On 23rd May Smith was seriously wounded by a Japanese shell fragment. He was taking a photograph at the time and the metal passed through his left hand before hitting the face. Smith was forced to return to the United States and he had to endure two years of hospitalization and plastic surgery. In 1947 Smith joined Life Magazine and over the next seven years produced a series of photo essays that established him as the world's most important photojournalist. These included essays entitled: Country Doctor, Hard Times on Broadway, Spanish Village, Southern Midwife, and Man of Mercy. Granted a Guggenheim Fellowship (1956-57), Smith began a massive picture essay of Pittsburgh.

Smith's last great photo essay, Minamata (1975), deals with the residents of a Japanese fishing village who suffered poisoning and gross disfigurement from the mercury wastes of a nearby chemical company. While photographing this project he was severely beaten by several local factory workers who were opposed to the revelations that his camera exposed. An extensive collection of his work was acquired by the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in 1976.

Smith severed his ties with Life again over how the magazine used his photos of Albert Schweitzer. Starting from his project to document Pittsburgh, he began a series of book-length photo essays in which he strove for complete control of his subject matter. This was followed by another large project in New York (1958-59). Smith also taught photojournalism at New York's New School for Social Research and was president of the American Society of Magazine Photographers.

Complications from his consumption of drugs and alcohol led to a massive stroke, from which Smith died in 1978. Today, Smith's legacy lives on through the W. Eugene Smith Fund to promote "humanistic photography," which has since 1980 awarded photographers for exceptional accomplishments in the field.

Of him, he says: "I am an idealist. I often feel I would like to be an artist in an ivory tower. Yet I must 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 principal concern is for honesty, above all honesty with myself..."

His Works and Analysis:
"A Walk to Paradise Garden", 1946
Smith’s war wounds cost him two painful years of hospitalization and plastic surgery. During these years he took no pictures and whether he would ever be able to return to photography was doubtful. Then one day, during his period of convalescence, Smith took a walk with his two children, and even though it was still intensely painful for him to operate a camera, came back with one of the most famous photographs of all time: "A Walk to Paradise Garden." This memorable image was to serve as the final picture in the famous "Family of Man" Exhibition.

"Country Doctor" Series, 1948
In the period from 1947 to 1954, Gene Smith was to produce the great photo essays for Life that were to redefine the meaning of the term, photojournalism, and established Smith as the undisputed master of the field. Among these essays was Country Doctor.

Dr. Albert Schweitzer - "A Man of Mercy" Series, 1954
In 1955, Smith, in disagreement over Life’s handling of his Schweitzer essay, resigned once again from the magazine. "...Superficiality to me is untruth when it is of reportorial stature. It is a grievous dishonesty when it is the mark of any interpretive report which pretends concern with an important subject," he commented. ...Download file to see next pages Read More