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W. Eugene Smith

W. Eugene Smith Biography

Photographer

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“My pictures are complex and so am I. When I am almost symbolistic in writing, there is a more limiting difference’s of accepting, while I can be even more complex in the photographs and people can usually accept them within the framework of their own limitations or lack of limitations – there is no dictionary meaning… they can look up for the photographic image and allow it to confuse them.”

PeopleWritingLooksI CanDifferencesAcceptingComplexesPhotographLimitationLook UpFrameworkDictionary
Author:W. Eugene Smith
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“...and each time I pressed the shutter release it was a shouted condemnation hurled with the hope that the picture might survive through the years, with the hope that they might echo through the minds of men in the future - causing them caution and remembrance and realization.”

MenYearsMindMightPhotographerReleaseRealizationEchoesRemembranceCautionCondemnationThrough The YearsShutters
Book:W. Eugene Smith, his photographs and notes
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“Up to and including the moment of exposure, the photographer is working in an undeniably subjective way. By his choice of technical approach, by the selection of the subject matterand by his decision as to the exact cinematic instant of exposure, he is blending the variables of interpretation into an emotional whole.”

WayWholeMomentsChoicesDecisionSubjectsEmotionalApproachPhotographerIncludingInstantInterpretationSelectionSubjectiveExposureVariablesCinematic
Author:W. Eugene Smith
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“I am an idealist. I often feel I would like to be an artist in an ivory tower. Yet it is imperative that I 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 principle concern is for honesty, above all honesty with myself.”

PeopleFeelsFactsArtistSpeakAttitudePrinciplesHonestyConcernPhotographerDesertJournalistOddsTowersTornImperativesIdealistIvoryRecordersIvory TowerPhotojournalists
Author:W. Eugene Smith
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“I would that my photographs might be, not the coverage of a news event, but an indictment of war - the brutal corrupting viciousness of its doing to the minds and bodies of men; and, that my photographs might be a powerful emotional catalyst to the reasoning which would help this vile and criminal stupidity from beginning again.”

MenMindWarHelpingBodyMightPowerfulEventsEmotionalNewsPhotographStupidityCriminalsReasoningBrutalMind And BodyCoverageCatalystBegin AgainIndictment
Book:W. Eugene Smith, his photographs and notes
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“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.”

PeopleWorldWantBelieveWarEasyRacePovertyGoneHatredPrejudiceHorribleBigotryUnitsFrameworkCiviliansCaptured
Author:W. Eugene Smith
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“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.”

IfsMenSaidMightActionFallCausesHorrorConscienceCamerasIntentionPhotographAidsWoundsFallenCompassionateViewersTaking Action
Author:W. Eugene Smith
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