Photographer of the Week: W. Eugene Smith

 William Eugene Smith

William Eugene Smith was born in 1918 in Wichita, Kansas. He took his first photographs at the age of 15 for two local newspapers. He actually entered the Notre Dame University where a special scholarship was made for him and then he went to New York a year later. He was there a while before he was fired for refusing to use a specific camera. This continued with many jobs as he was quite hard to work with. 

Eugene Smith's "claim to fame" was his photo essays. They stood out because they had a strong sense of empathy and social conscience. He photographed civilians' reactions to whatever was happening and it would have a strong sense of truth in them. His photographs always had a purpose, and for the most part, it was to bring awareness to something. This is really ironic considering the fact that he was a colossal asshole who was very self-sabotaging and was very hard to work with. He had a difficult time with editors and he refused to allow any photographs and their layout to be anything but his own personal vision. And he was an alcoholic and had a long term addiction to amphetamines. 


Nun Waiting For Survivors (1956)

I would say this is my favorite image because I love the way Eugene shows the facial expressions of his subjects. The way the nun looks towards what is happening, which was waiting for survivors of the S.S. Andrea Doria, is beautifully captured. 

Eugene Smith has a ton of very famous photos. He was known for his beautiful photos and his heartfelt photo essays. From the photo of his children walking through a forest to a photo showing the effects of mercury poisoning, Smith takes care to show what is happening in his photos to the people that is being affected. 

In 1957, he became a full member of Magnum. He was fanatically dedicated to his mission as a photographer. Because of this dedication, he was often regarded by editors as 'troublesome'. A year after he moved to Tucson, to teach at the University of Arizona, Smith died of a stroke.


https://www.britannica.com/biography/W-Eugene-Smith

https://www.magnumphotos.com/?s=W.+Eugene+Smith

https://iphf.org/inductees/william-eugene-smith/

https://www.contact-sheet.net/post/10-iconic-photos-of-w-eugene-smith-must-see-for-photographers

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Around Campus

Image
On November 15th, the weather is very neutral and itis a little chilly. The mural has athletes  S amantha Rouleau, Kendrick Abraham, Kyia Duvall, and Tyger Liner.   This mural was painted by the artist Rip Cronk. It is located on the side of the Activities Center building. DeAnna Mursch sits in the LBCC Cafe on November 5th to get out of the cold. She's playing a game on her phone to relax from all the stress of being at school. Her major is Equine Science which is basically studying horses. She's always loved horses so it was the perfect major for her. It's actually a Bachelors's degree that she is going to transfer to OSU to do. In her free time, however, she likes to make art, read, and play games. On November 12th, Jonah Wasmer-Foree talks on the phone with his mom about meeting up at a cafe downtown in Albany. Jonah is 20 years old and his major is Mechtronics as being an engineer was something that was suggested to him. He likes hanging out with his friends David
Read more

The Movie Theater for Everyone: The Pix

Image
  The building for the Pix has been on and off since the 30s. It was originally a horse stable at first for a long time and then it was a flower shop in the 2000s.  The Pix is a movie theater in downtown Albany. It is owned by Rod and Denise Bigner. They bought it in 2013 from Jeff and Robin Mexico. Rod was a pastor but that wasn't making a lot of money and they had been wanting to buy a movie theater for a while as they both really loved movies and the Oscars. They were originally looking for movie theaters in Oklahoma but then they saw that Jeff and Robin had put it up for sale in 2013 so they sold their house and bought the business.  Parker Johnson has been working at the Pix for 3 years. He loves the community aspect of his job so much. He's been working there since before the pandemic started and has stuck around as his job means a lot to him. Parker loves seeing people come around to the theater and seeing families enjoy their time. At work, Parker and his coworkers will
Read more