Quote

Most photographers seem to operate with a pane of glass between themselves and their subjects. They just can't get inside and know the subject.

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
Photographer
Subject
Photography
Subjects
Pane
Seem
Photographers
Inside
Operate
Seems
Glass
Glasses

More quotes by W. Eugene Smith

Image
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!
W. Eugene Smith
Image
...and each time I pressed the shutter release it was a shouted condemnation hurled with the hope that the picture might survive through the years, with the hope that they might echo through the minds of men in the future - causing them caution and remembrance and realization.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
I am constantly torn between the attitude of the conscientious journalist who is a recorder and interpreter of the facts and of the creative artist who often is necessarily at poetic odds with the literal facts.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
Available light is any damn light that is available!
W. Eugene Smith
Image
With considerable soul searching, that to the utmost of my ability, I have let truth be the prejudice.
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
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
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
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
Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors.
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
The purpose of all art is to cause a deep and emotion, also one that is entertaining or pleasing. Out of the depth and entertainment comes value.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
I try to take what voice I have and I give it to those who don’t have one at all.
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
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
I've never made any picture, good or bad, without paying for it in emotional turmoil.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera.
W. Eugene Smith
Image
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.
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
I didn’t write the rules. Why would I follow them?
W. Eugene Smith