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I didn’t write the rules. Why would I follow them?

W. Eugene Smith

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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
Would
Photographer
Rules
Follow
Write
Didn
Writing

More quotes by W. Eugene Smith

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I try to take what voice I have and I give it to those who don’t have one at all.
W. Eugene Smith
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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
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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
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What use having a great depth of field, if there is not an adequate depth of feeling?
W. Eugene Smith
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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
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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
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If I can get them to think, get them to feel, get them to see, then I've done about all that I can as a teacher.
W. Eugene Smith
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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
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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
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I think photojournalism is documentary photography with a purpose.
W. Eugene Smith
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With considerable soul searching, that to the utmost of my ability, I have let truth be the prejudice.
W. Eugene Smith
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I would that my photographs might be, not the coverage of a news event, but an indictment of war.
W. Eugene Smith
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... to became neighbours and friends instead of journalists. This is the way to make your finest photographs.
W. Eugene Smith
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An artist must be ruthlessly selfish.
W. Eugene Smith
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I would that my photographs might be, not the coverage of a news event, but an indictment of war - the brutal corrupting viciousness of its doing to the minds and bodies of men and, that my photographs might be a powerful emotional catalyst to the reasoning which would help this vile and criminal stupidity from beginning again.
W. Eugene Smith
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The journalistic photographer can have no other than a personal approach and it is impossible for him to be completely objective. Honest—yes. Objective—no.
W. Eugene Smith
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My pictures are complex and so am I.
W. Eugene Smith
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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
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Hardening of the categories causes art disease.
W. Eugene Smith
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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