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Quote by W. Eugene Smith

“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.”

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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“The journalistic photographer can have no other than a personal approach; and it is impossible for him to be completely objective. Honest—yes. Objective—no.”

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Author:W. Eugene Smith

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

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Author:W. Eugene Smith

“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.”

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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.”

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

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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.”

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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.”

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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!”

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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.”

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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