William Eugene Smith
W. Eugene Smith
W. Eugene Smith
William Eugene Smith was a craftsman of unmatched talent who’s incessant perfectionism and refusal to conform professionally makes him, in the opinion of many people, the undisputed king of photojournalism. Born in Wichita, Kansas, Smith got his first camera from his mother at the age of fourteen. A man of many woes and inner turmoil, he battled with drug and alcohol addiction for much of his life, being admitted to mental institutions on several occasions. His passion for the truth, regardless of how stark or unflattering it may somethimes seem, depicts him as a fanatically dedicated artist, hell bent on creating his vision at all costs.
A pioneer in many fields, his restless nature never pinned him down to one photojournalistic approach. A master at portraying the grim realities of combat, working class exploitation, environmental damage, drug addiction, and the photo essay, his intuitive sense of timing, technique and insight also allowed him to capture some of the most beautiful images of nature and childhood ever to be caught on camera, capturing the humanity of his subjects like no other.
“I Have Never Made Any
Picture, Good or Bad,
Without Paying for it in
Emotional Turmoil”
William Eugene Smith
Wounded, dying infant found by American Soldier in Saipin Mountain (1944)
The Second World War, Iwo Jima, Sticks and Stones (1945)
Smith’s frustration with the way war was being presented in the American press pushed him to show a true account of his experiences while island hopping with the American offensive against Japan. His routine of “staying up when everyone else had ducked for cover” left him severely wounded when he was his by mortar fire on the island of Okinawa.
While recovering from his injuries, Smith, who had not been able to take a photo in almost two years, suddenly reached for his camera once again while taking a walk with his children in the garden of their home. Having the strength to take only one picture due to his left hand still being shattered, his photo A Walk to Paradise Garden has since become known as an “icon” of the twentieth century. It is an image that commands much empathy from those who see it, perhaps because the children’s faces are unseen, people imagine it to be their own children, travelling into the unknown future.
A Walk to Paradise Garden (1946)
Waiting for the Andrea Dorea (1953)
When Eugene Smith was sent to cover the story about an Italian liner, the Andrea Doria, which collided with a Swedish vessel, killing fifty one people, he went straight to Pier 88 in New York to await the arrival of the surviving passengers. Here, he noticed a young nun holding her fingers to her lips, and clutching a teddy bear intended for one of the surviving children, in an expression of utter anxiety. Life magazine rejected the photo as it was not what they were looking for.
For his final work, a fifty two year old Smith was sent to Minimata Japan to cover a story on mercury poisoning which was affecting the local people. It would prove to be his finest work. Smith, planning to stay in Japan for three months, and determined to tell the story of “Minimata disease” to the world, stayed for three years.
During those years Smith took thousands of photographs, leading to the production of numerous magazine articles, exhibitions and books. Smith realized that a single striking photograph was required to become a symbol of Minamata disease. In Smith’s own words, “It grew and grew in my mind that to me the symbol of Minamata was, finally, a picture of this woman (the mother), and the child, Tomoko. One day I simply said, let us try to make that symbolic picture”. Tomoko in her Mother’s Armshas been called the pieta of modern photography. The finest image from his finest collection. It shows a loving mother, Ryoka Uemura, cradling her severely deformed daughter in a traditional Japanese bathing chamber. Smith was asked to give presentation on his work in Stanford University in 1975. When it came to the slide of Tomoko in Her Mother’s Arms he broke down crying in front of the audience. The harrowing image of Tomoko brought the issue of Minamatadisease and the plights of it’s victims to worldwide attention and inspired the people of Japan’s fight for compensation against the chemical factory whose mercury waste poisoned the waters fish, a staple of the Japanese diet. For his troubles, Eugene Smith was set upon by six “heavies” from the Chisso plant and beaten within an inch of his life and left lying unconscious in the middle of the street. He suffered enduring pain from the beating for the rest of his life.
Tomoko in her Mother's Arms
In 1979, complications from his long term consumption of amphetamine, taken to enable his workaholic tendencies, and alcohol led to a massive stroke, from which Smith died shortly thereafter.
Today, Smith’s legacy lives on through the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund which promotes “humanistic photography.” Since 1980, the fund has awarded photographers with grants of up to $20,000 for exceptional accomplishments in the field.
Pittsburg Worker
