W. Eugene Smith
What I like about Eugene Smith is that, despite his awkwardness, he was truly focused on the personal implications of Life in the city, war and environmental issues such as the mercury poisoning in Minamata Bay, Japan. His projects often overran by months and even years (notably his Pittsburgh project where a commission of three weeks and a hundred photographs led to three years and twenty one thousand photos). He needed the extra time to get to grips with the story that he witnessed and wanted to tell. He had a vision he wanted to convey and that often took time well beyond what others expected of him. His projects thus were truly genuine and resonated in a very meaningful way with those that saw his photos.
If Eugene Smith felt that his photos would help to right a wrong perpetuated by a company or by the state then he was prepared to take risks to his well being in order to tell the story. He firmly believed that the photographer should have some purpose and reason for taking photographs. He cared very deeply about the subjects of his photos and wanted to shine a light on social injustices. He didn’t think taking a photo was justified unless there was some purpose to it. Also he thought that the taking of a photograph was secondary to being involved or engaging with what he saw. He wouldn’t intrude on someone’s grief if it were not welcome and he would prefer to get involved if that was the right thing to do rather than take a photograph.
When asked by Phillipe Halsmann what justified his intrusion into other people’s personal affairs his reply was ethically sound.
“I don’t think a picture for the sake of a picture is justified — only when you consider the purpose. For example, I photographed a woman giving birth, for a story on a midwife. There are at least two gaps of great pictures in my pictures. One is D-Day in the Philippines, of a woman who is struggling giving birth in a village that has just been destroyed by our shelling, and this woman giving birth against this building — my only thought at that time was to help her. If there had been someone else at least as competent to help as I was then, I would have photographed. But as I stood as an altering circumstance — no damn picture is worth it!”
From an interview with Phillipe Halsmann in 1956