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…

— W. Eugene Smith

... to became neighbours and friends instead of journalists. This is the way to make your finest photographs.

— 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…

— W. Eugene Smith

I was after a set of pictures, so that when people looked at them they would say, ‘This is war’-that the people…

— 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…

— W. Eugene Smith

The first word I would remove from the folklore of journalism is the word objective.

— 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…

— 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…

— W. Eugene Smith

You can't photograph if you're not in love.

— W. Eugene Smith

I think photojournalism is documentary photography with a purpose.

— 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

Many claim I am a photographer of tragedy. In the greater sense I am not, for though I often photograph where the…

— 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…

— 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…

— W. Eugene Smith

I didn’t write the rules. Why would I follow them?

— 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…

— W. Eugene Smith

I would that my photographs might be, not the coverage of a news event, but an indictment of war - the brutal…

— 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…

— W. Eugene Smith

In music I still prefer the minor key, and in printing I like the light coming from the dark. I like pictures…

— 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,…

— 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…

— W. Eugene Smith

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

— 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…

— 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…

— W. Eugene Smith