W. Eugene Smith (1918 – 1978).

I have previously come across Smith in my Level 2 Documentary course.

In the 1940’s and 50’s, Smith became famous as the model of the committed photojournalist, renowned for the extended picture essays he made for Life magazine on such subjects as a country doctor in Colorado and the life of a Spanish village. Smith immersed himself in his stories, sometimes spending months working on one; his essays, combining equal measures of reportage and sentiment, were hailed as classics of the medium.  At the initial research back in 2018/19 I hadn’t read the boy by Berger and Smith’s approach was very similar, blending in and being able to photograph without seeming to be there, something I need consider if I focus on one person.

Since Smith’s death in 1978, at the age of 59, his reputation as a photographer has been somewhat eclipsed by stories of his troubled personal life, which was punctuated by battles with editors and struggles with alcohol and amphetamines.

The photograph of a rural doctor leaning wearily against a kitchen counter sipping a cup of coffee, for example, has become an icon of photojournalism, as with the 1950 shot of three Welsh miners, their faces blackened with coal dust. Other well-known pictures from Smith’s Life days include his 1944 shot of a helmeted marine cradling a dying baby during the invasion of Saipan in World War II and the 1950 image of grieving women clustered around the hollow-cheeked body of an old man, from his essay on the village of Deleitosa, Spain.

82107028, 10/26/07, 10:10 AM, 8C, 4276×5443 (642+1114), 100%, Custom, 1/50 s, R33.7, G19.7, B29.7

For me the appeal of Smith’s images are based on his ability to capture dramatic moments in pictures that were remarkable for their powerful compositions and skilled use of lighting, Smith’s pictures often recall the works of Renaissance masters.

Smith was essentially a storyteller; the vast majority of his most memorable images appeared in picture essays in Life or other magazines, selected by editors and laid out with captions and other texts. Removed from their original contexts, the pictures lose some of their emotional impact; like movie stills, the photographs evoke the narrative settings in which they appeared, but cannot recreate them fully.

In his final years, Smith himself became a hero to many photographers, albeit a tragic one. The Minimata pictures brought him great acclaim, but a severe beating — reportedly by hired thugs — he suffered during the project, coupled with his continuing abuse of alcohol and drugs, caused his health to deteriorate seriously before his death.

Magazine photojournalism of the sort Smith practiced for much of his career has fallen on hard times, with many of its functions taken over by television and social media, however Smith continues to provide a model for younger photojournalists, both for the emotional richness of his pictures and the passion with which he pursued his stories

Bibliography

Website accessed 24/04/20

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Eugene_Smith

https://www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/w-eugene-smith/

https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/w-eugene-smith?all/all/all/all/0