W. Eugene Smith

The American photojournalist W. Eugene Smith revolutionized the photo-essay form with the works he published in Life magazine between 1948 and 1956. This monograph reproduces images from six classic sequences of this era: Country Doctor (1948), which portrays the selfless and sometimes frustrating work of a doctor in rural America; Spanish Village (1950), perhaps the most powerful photographic study of 1950s Spain; Nurse Midwife (1951), which examines the life of a black woman in the American south; A Man of Mercy (1954), which documents Dr. Albert Schweitzer's humanitarian work in Africa; Pittsburgh (1955), Smith's first freelance assignment, previously unpublished; and Minamata 91971–1973), a photo-essay recording the effects caused by a mercury spill in a region inhabited by Japanese fishermen. Together, these six classic documents of twentieth-century photography affirm Smith as an impassioned conscience, with practical ends in mind for his work: “I put such passion and energy into my photographic work that, more than their being just for art’s sake, I prefer to think that my photographs push someone to action, to do something, to solve something,” he one wrote. This volume includes previously unpublished writings by Smith that elucidate his field techniques and guiding principles, as well as the memoir “A Walk to a Paradise Garden,” which tells the tale of his most acclaimed photograph.
W. Eugene Smith (1918–1978) was born in Wichita, Kansas. After graduating from high school he moved to New York and found work with Newsweek, who famously fired him because he refused to use a medium-format camera. Smith joined Life magazine in 1939, and accompanied American battalions on the offensive against Japan. In 1955 he joined Magnum, and throughout the following two decades produced numerous key works of photojournalism. Smith died from a stroke in 1978.

W. Eugene Smith (1918–1978) revolutionized the photo-essay form with the works he published in Life magazine between 1948 and 1956. This monograph reproduces images from six classic sequences: Country Doctor, which portrays the selfless and sometimes frustrating work of a doctor in rural America; Spanish Village, the most powerful photographic study of 1950s Spain; Nurse Midwife, which examines the life of a black woman in the American south; A Man of Mercy, which documents Dr. Albert Schweitzer's humanitarian work in Africa; Pittsburgh, Smith's first freelance assignment, previously unpublished; and Minamata, a photo-essay recording the effects caused by a mercury spill in a region inhabited by Japanese fishermen. Writings by W. Eugene Smith, clarifying his field techniques and guiding principles, are included here in an English-language insert, alongside the tale of his most praised photograph, “A Walk to a Paradise Garden,” and an essay on Spain in the 1950s, the setting for his Spanish Village essay.

W. Eugene Smith is the master of the photographic essay; he created essays which include some of the most dramatic and affecting single images of the twentieth century. Fiercely energetic, he made countless photographs memorable for their formal brilliance and for their compassion. This volume of Aperture's Masters of Photography presents more than 70 of Smith's greatest photographs, selected from work created over the course of 45 years. Smith's interests were broad; his work spanned subject matter from the process of birth to the horrors of death in action. Included here are photographs from Smith's most celebrated photo-essays, including Country Doctor, Spanish Village, Pittsburgh and Minamata, as well as examples of his World War II work and selections from the later, more introspective work made in his loft in New York City. In his introductory essay, Jim Hughes, Smith's biographer, provides an overview of Smith's life, and insight into his work.