Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.
W. Eugene SmithMy pictures are complex and so am I. When I am almost symbolistic in writing, there is a more limiting differenceโs of accepting, while I can be even more complex in the photographs and people can usually accept them within the framework of their own limitations or lack of limitations โ there is no dictionary meaningโฆ they can look up for the photographic image and allow it to confuse them.
W. Eugene SmithI 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 SmithI am an idealist. I often feel I would like to be an artist in an ivory tower. Yet it is imperative that I speak to people, so I must desert that ivory tower. To do this, I am a journalist - a photojournalist. But I am always torn between the attitude of the journalist, who is a recorder of facts, and the artist, who is often necessarily at odds with the facts. My principle concern is for honesty, above all honesty with myself.
W. Eugene Smith