W. Eugene Smith Quotes & Sayings

In music I still prefer the minor key, and in printing I like the light coming from the dark. I like pictures that surmount the darkness, and many of my photographs are that way. It is the way I see photographically. For practical reasons, I think it looks better in print too. — W. Eugene Smith

I 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

What use having a great depth of field, if there is not an adequate depth of feeling? — W. Eugene Smith

I try to take what voice I have and I give it to those who don't have one at all. — W. Eugene Smith

And each time I pressed the shutter release it was a shouted condemnation hurled with the hope that the picture might survive through the years, with the hope that they might echo through the minds of men in the future - causing them caution and remembrance and realization. — W. Eugene Smith

The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera. — W. Eugene Smith

Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness. — W. Eugene Smith

If I can get them to think, get them to feel, get them to see, then I've done about all that I can as a teacher. — W. Eugene Smith

Never have I found the limits of the photographic potential. Every horizon, upon being reached, reveals another beckoning in the distance. Always, I am on the threshold. — W. Eugene Smith

The 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 Smith

Available light is any damn light that is available! — W. Eugene Smith

Hardening of the categories causes art disease. — W. Eugene Smith

I didn't write the rules. Why would I follow them? — W. Eugene Smith

What's the best type of light? Why that would be available light ... and by available light I mean any damn light is available. — W. Eugene Smith

I would that my photographs might be, not the coverage of a news event, but an indictment of war. — W. Eugene Smith

I think photojournalism is documentary photography with a purpose. — W. Eugene Smith

I 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 Smith

An artist must be ruthlessly selfish. — W. Eugene Smith

The first word I would remove from the folklore of journalism is the word objective. — W. Eugene Smith

The journalistic photographer can have no other than a personal approach; and it is impossible for him to be completely objective. Honest - yes. Objective - no. — W. Eugene Smith

I've never made any picture, good or bad, without paying for it in emotional turmoil. — W. Eugene Smith

Many claim I am a photographer of tragedy. In the greater sense I am not, for though I often photograph where the tragic emotion is present, the result is almost invariably affirmative. — W. Eugene Smith

My pictures are complex and so am I. — W. Eugene Smith

With considerable soul searching, that to the utmost of my ability, I have let truth be the prejudice. — W. Eugene Smith

To became neighbours and friends instead of journalists. This is the way to make your finest photographs. — W. Eugene Smith

The photographer must bear the responsibility for his work and its effect ... [for] photographic journalism, because of its tremendous audience reached by publications using it, has more influence on public thinking than any other branch of photography. — W. Eugene Smith

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 Smith

You can't photograph if you're not in love. — W. Eugene Smith

Negatives 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

Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors. — W. Eugene Smith

I can't stand these damn shows on museum walls with neat little frames, where you look at the images as if they were pieces of art. I want them to be pieces of life! — W. Eugene Smith

Up 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

My 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 Smith

My photographs at best hold only a small length, but through them I would suggest and criticize and illuminate and try to give compassionate understanding. — W. Eugene Smith