W. Eugene Smith was known as an uncompromising photojournalist and for his stark World War II photographs.

Eugene Smith was born in Kansas in 1918 and attended the Wichita high school north in 1936. He began his profession by working for two Wichita newspapers, the Eagle and the Beacon, and soon took a job at Newsweek, but because of his unremitting thoroughness and prickly personality he ran afoul of the management for refusing to use medium format cameras and was fired. In 1939, soon after leaving Newsweek, Smith took a job at Life Magazine where he quickly resigned. Later Smith took a job at Parade Magazine where he was seriously hurt while simulating combat conditions in 1942.

In World War II, Smith worked as a correspondent for Ziff-Davis Publishing and Life Magazine. While on assignment he spent many hours on the front lines in the battle against Japan, and photographed both Japanese POWs and U.S. Marines throughout the Pacific theatre. During a battle On Okinawa, Smith was wounded by mortar fire.

After recovering from his wounds, he continued working for Life Magazine where from 1947 to 1954 he perfected his photo essay techniques. In 1950, he was sent to England to photograph the General Election. During this assignment, Smith went against Life’s wishes to cover the election with an unenthusiastic stance against Clement Attlee, and the Labour party. Although a few Smith photographs from that assignment were eventually published, Smith again left Life Magazine over the way the magazine used his photos of Albert Schweitzer.

After leaving Life again, smith began a project to document Pittsburgh in photographs from which led to a series of photo essay books. In 1978, after years of drug and alcohol abuse, Smith died from a massive stroke. Today, the Smith legacy lives on through the W. Eugene Smith Fund.

Check out our collection of W. Eugene Smith works

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