Quote

I've never made any picture, good or bad, without paying for it in emotional turmoil.

W. Eugene Smith

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

W. Eugene Smith
Age: 59 †
Born: 1918
Born: December 30
Died: 1978
Died: October 15
Journalist
Photographer
Photojournalist
War Photographer
Wichita
Kansas
William Eugene Smith
Vilyam Yugin Smit
$15V. Yug'in Smit
V. Yugin Smit
$15Vilyam Yug'in Smit
Eugene Smith
W Eugene Smith
Vilyam Yugin
Yug'in Smit
Gene Smith
Yugin Smit
Never
Turmoil
Paying
Picture
Photography
Emotional
Without
Made
Good

More quotes by W. Eugene Smith

Image
Negatives are the notebooks, the jottings, the false starts, the whims, the poor drafts, and the good draft but never the completed version of the work The print and a proper one is the only completed photograph, whether it is specifically shaded for reproduction, or for a museum wall.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
What's the best type of light? Why that would be available light... and by available light I mean any damn light is available.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
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.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
I think photojournalism is documentary photography with a purpose.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
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.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
An artist must be ruthlessly selfish.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
I would that my photographs might be, not the coverage of a news event, but an indictment of war.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
In music I still prefer the minor key, and in printing I like the light coming from the dark. I like pictures that surmount the darkness, and many of my photographs are that way. It is the way I see photographically. For practical reasons, I think it looks better in print too.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
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.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
What use having a great depth of field, if there is not an adequate depth of feeling?
W. Eugene Smith
Image
You can't photograph if you're not in love.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
The first word I would remove from the folklore of journalism is the word objective.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
I didn’t write the rules. Why would I follow them?
W. Eugene Smith
Image
Available light is any damn light that is available!
W. Eugene Smith
Image
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.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
Hardening of the categories causes art disease.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
My camera, my intentions stopped no man from falling. Nor did they aid him after he had fallen. It could be said that photographs be damned for they bind no wounds. Yet, I reasoned, if my photographs could cause compassionate horror within the viewer, they might also prod the conscience of that viewer into taking action.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors.
W. Eugene Smith