Eugene Smith, American, 1918-1978
At the age of 15, Smith was drawn to news photography and
worked on assignments for the Wichita Eagle and the Wichita Beacon while
still in high school. He earned a photography scholarship to Notre Dame University
in Indiana, but left after only one year and went to New York where he got a
job at Newsweek. In 1938 he joined Black Star agency where he worked
as a freelance photographer for magazines including Life, Collier's and Harper's
Bazaar. Early in his career Smith realized that photography had the power
to raise social consciousness and affect change. Smith was eager to have his
photographs seen by a wider audience and to photograph the most poignant and
pressing stories so he joined Life magazine in 1939. Although he had an
on-and-off relationship with them until 1955, he was one of their most highly
respected photographers. In 1942 Smith worked for the publishing firm Ziff-Davis
covering the war in the South Pacific. Frustrated that he couldn't get close
enough to the action, he returned to Life in 1944. In 1945, while documenting
the invasion of Okinawa, Smith was hit by shrapnel and was unable to work for
almost two years while he recovered from his wounds. After such a long break
from making photographs, he wanted his next image to be significant. The result
was a photograph of his two children walking out of the woods into the light
called "Walk in Paradise Garden". It was such a strong image that Edward Steichen
used it in his 1955 exhibition and book entitled, The Family of Man.
Smith is probably best known for his photo-essays. Among his most successful
are "Country Doctor", "Nurse Midwife" and "A Man of Mercy" about Albert Schweitzer.
Although this work kept him quite busy, he still found time to be active in the
Photo League (from 1948-50 he was the president); Magnum Photos from 1955-58;
and in 1958 he began teaching at the New School for Social Research in New York
City. Among many accomplishments, Smith was a three-time recipient of the Guggenheim
Fellowship; he won the ASMP's Third Annual Photojournalism Conference award in
1959; he was voted by Popular Photography Magazine as one of the "World's 10
Greatest Photographers"; and he was awarded an NEA grant in 1975.
In the early 1970s Smith and his wife moved to Minamata, Japan to document the plight of people who had suffered from industrial mercury poisoning. Smith believed that pollution was a world-wide problem and he wanted to make people conscious through his photographs. In 1977 Smith and his wife settled in Tucson, AZ where he taught at the University of Arizona and arranged his archives at the Center for Creative Photography. For more information on Smith see W. Eugene Smith Photographs 1934-1975 published by Harry N. Abrams.
Bibliography:
James L. Enyeart, Center for Creative Photography issue 12, W. Eugene Smith: Early Work, Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, July 1980.
James Enyeart, William S. Johnson, Sharon Denton, Sarah Moore, Amy Stark, The Archive: Number 20, July 1984, W. Eugene Smith Middle Years, Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, 1984.
Jim Hughes, Shadow and Substance, W. Eugene Smith: The Life and Work of an American Photographer, Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1989.
William Johnson, W. Eugene Smith: A Chronological Bibliography, 1934-1980, Part II (2 copies), Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, 1981.
Lincoln Kirstein, W. Eugene Smith: His Photographs & Notes, New York: Aperture, 1969.
Ben Maddow, Let the Truth be the Prejudice, W. Eugene Smith: His Life and Photographs, New York: Aperture, 1986.
Gilles Mora, John T. Hill, W. Eugene Smith: Photographs 1934-1975, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998.
Barry Singer, W. Eugene Smith: Photographic Poet, Petaluma, CA: Barry Singer Gallery, 2000.
Sam Stephenson, W. Eugene Smith 55, London: Phaidon Press Ltd., 2001.
Minor White, W. Eugene Smith: His Photographs and Notes, New York: Aperture, 1969.
Stephen White, W. Eugene Smith: A Photographic Notebook, Maysville, KY: Stephen White Gallery of Photography, 1988.
Glenn G. Willumson, W. Eugene Smith and the Photographic Essay, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Unversity Press, 1992.
