War Photographer

Emily McNally

War Photographer: W. Eugene Smith

            “Photo is a small voice, at best, but sometimes - just sometimes - one photograph or a group of them can lure our senses into awareness. Much depends upon the viewer; in some, photographs can summon enough emotion to be a catalyst to thought.”  This is one of the most famous quotes taken from the late W. Eugene Smith in an essay he published in 1975 called Minimata.  Smith was known for his photo-essays as well as his war photography and Minimata just happened to be his last published project.

            Smith was born in Wichita Kansas in 1918.  He learned photography from his mother who would photograph pictures of the family.  For this reason he began photographing at a young age and had already published for many magazines by age 21.  He went to college at Wichita’s Notre Dame University for a year before moving to New York to continue his studies at the New York Institute of Photography.  He went on to his first job working for Newsweek magazine but was later fired for creative differences. 

He received his big break when he was assigned to cover World War II in the Pacific.  He threw himself right into the action of the war, photographing everywhere from land to sea and following the American army as they island hopped to Japan.  He was not afraid to get up close and personal with the war and the soldiers as long as he got his shot.  In this way he was a perfectionist.  However his trip was unfortunately cut short when he received a severe injury and had to undergo surgery and take a two year break from his work.  Frustrated that he was unable to work for so long he began taking photos of his children, which is where one of his most well known photos “Walk in Paradise Garden,” arose.  This photo was so peaceful and unlike many of the other images that Smith had taken before that it has become an icon of family photography.

After he recuperated, Smith went back to work for LIFE magazine, one of the magazines he had been working for during the war.  The war was over at this point so he began a series of photo-essays where he would immerse himself in the life’s of his topics and get the most intimate stories and photos.  He worked very differently than he had in the past as he tried to reveal the real core of his topics.  This proved to be effective and had a positive response from the public and the editors.

Even with his success, Smith soon tired of taking restricting magazine photos and quit LIFE to work on his own.  He worked for a while in his college town of New York where he would photograph a collection of different subjects, even taking a bunch of photos from his window to the street.  After a few years of this he moved on to his final project, the Minimata essay.  He moved with his second wife to Japan to cover industrial pollution victims in the town of Minimata.  This is the essay where many of his famous quotes have surfaced.  Soon after he finished his project in Japan he moved to Arizona to teach where he ended up suffering from a stroke and died in 1978.

Smith’s photos covered a large range of topics.  If one were to look through a slide show of some of his most famous works you would see everything from a picture of his children walking in the garden to the KKK to a car on the side of a road with the sign “Dream” nearby.  His work is not only interesting but also moving.  It is incredible that someone is able to take such a wide diversity of photos and have every topic look just as good as the last.  This is the likely one of the reasons why he was so successful in his life.

W. Eugene Smith devoted his whole life to photography.  He not only gave up his family for it but also put his life in danger to take the best photos possible.  Because of this dedication he was able to give us some of the best photos seen during World War II.  He refused to compromise his practices and was not afraid to show the most brutal photos he took during the war.  His photos depict the sights that only the soldiers were able to witness themselves.  His images are powerful in the way that they are composed and in the subject matter.  For these reasons his work is still admired today and he some think of him as one of the greatest war photographers to ever have lived.

Word Count: 795

Works Cited

"Magnum Photos." Magnum Photos. Magnum Photos, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.

"W. Eugene Smith About W. Eugene Smith." PBS. PBS, 18 Apr. 2002. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.

"W Eugene Smith: Photography Made Difficult (1989) Full Length." YouTube. YouTube, 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.