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 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 SmithPhotography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.
W. Eugene SmithI would that my photographs might be, not the coverage of a news event, but an indictment of war.
W. Eugene SmithUp 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