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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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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
Fall
Intention
Compassionate
Prod
Action
Photograph
Stopped
Reasoned
Also
Horror
Wounds
Viewer
Might
Conscience
Aids
Bind
Men
Taking
Fallen
Damned
Cause
Falling
Viewers
Causes
Camera
Intentions
Within
Cameras
Photographs

More quotes by W. Eugene Smith

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My pictures are complex and so am I.
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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You can't photograph if you're not in love.
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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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 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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... to became neighbours and friends instead of journalists. This is the way to make your finest photographs.
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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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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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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I think photojournalism is documentary photography with a purpose.
W. Eugene Smith
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I didn’t write the rules. Why would I follow them?
W. Eugene Smith
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The first word I would remove from the folklore of journalism is the word objective.
W. Eugene Smith
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Hardening of the categories causes art disease.
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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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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An artist must be ruthlessly selfish.
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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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
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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