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An artist must be ruthlessly selfish.

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
Photographer
Artist
Must
Ruthlessly
Selfish

More quotes by W. Eugene Smith

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I've never made any picture, good or bad, without paying for it in emotional turmoil.
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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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
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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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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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Available light is any damn light that is available!
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 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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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 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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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
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Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors.
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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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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... to became neighbours and friends instead of journalists. This is the way to make your finest photographs.
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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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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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
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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