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

More quotes by W. Eugene Smith

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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
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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 world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera.
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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An artist must be ruthlessly selfish.
W. Eugene Smith
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I think photojournalism is documentary photography with a purpose.
W. Eugene Smith
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Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors.
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
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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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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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You can't photograph if you're not in love.
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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Available light is any damn light that is available!
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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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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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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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
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...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
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Hardening of the categories causes art disease.
W. Eugene Smith