My 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 was after a set of pictures, so that when people looked at them they would say, โThis is warโ-that the people who were in the war would believe that I had truthfully captured what they had gone through I worked in the framework that war is horrible. I want to carry on what I have tried to do in these pictures. War is a concentrated unit in the world and these things are clearly and cleanly seen. Things like race prejudice, poverty, hatred and bigotry are sprawling things in civilian life, and not so easy to define as war.
W. Eugene SmithThe 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 SmithPhotography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.
W. Eugene Smith... to became neighbours and friends instead of journalists. This is the way to make your finest photographs.
W. Eugene SmithMy 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 SmithNegatives 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