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Quote by W. Eugene Smith

“I didn’t write the rules. Why would I follow them?”

Quote by W. Eugene Smith

Author

W. Eugene Smith

W. Eugene Smith was an influential American photographer known for his profound documentary photography. His work is renowned for its empathy towards human suffering and its focus on social issues. Smith's contributions to photography have had a lasting impact, and he is widely considered one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. more

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“My photographs at best hold only a small length, but through them I would suggest and criticize and illuminate and try to give compassionate understanding.”

Giving Trying Understanding Photographer Photograph Length Criticize Compassionate

Author:W. Eugene Smith

“The photographer must bear the responsibility for his work and its effect …[for] photographic journalism, because of its tremendous audience reached by publications using it, has more influence on public thinking than any other branch of photography.”

Thinking Responsibility Audience Influence Effects Bears Photography Photographer Journalism Branches Publication

Author:W. Eugene Smith

“I try to take what voice I have and I give it to those who don’t have one at all.”

Giving Trying Voice Photographer

Author:W. Eugene Smith

“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.”

People Feels Facts Artist Speak Attitude Principles Honesty Concern Photographer Desert Journalist Odds Towers Torn Imperatives Idealist Ivory Recorders Ivory Tower Photojournalists

Author:W. Eugene Smith

“Many claim I am a photographer of tragedy. In the greater sense I am not, for though I often photograph where the tragic emotion is present, the result is almost invariably affirmative.”

Results Emotion Greater Claims Tragedy Photographer Photograph Tragic Affirmative

Author:W. Eugene Smith

“I can’t stand these damn shows on museum walls with neat little frames, where you look at the images as if they were pieces of art. I want them to be pieces of life!”

Ifs Want Looks Littles Art I Can Shows Pieces Wall Photographer Damn Museums Neat

Author:W. Eugene Smith

“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.”

Found Limits Photography Distance Photographer Horizon Umpires Threshold Distance Relationship Beckoning Inspirational Long Distance Relationship

Book:W. Eugene Smith, his photographs and notes

Source: W. Eugene Smith, his photographs and notes

“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.”

Source: W. Eugene Smith, his photographs and notes

“With considerable soul searching, that to the utmost of my ability, I have let truth be the prejudice.”

Soul Ability Truth Is Prejudice Soul Searching

Author:W. Eugene Smith

“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.”

People World Want Believe War Easy Race Poverty Gone Hatred Prejudice Horrible Bigotry Units Framework Civilians Captured

Author:W. Eugene Smith