William Eugene Smith
William Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist born on December 30, 1918 and is best known for his vivid World War 2 photographs. William was born is Wichita, Kansas and graduated from Wichita North High School on 1936. His first job was taking pictures for local newspapers, The Wichita Eagle and The Beacon. He then moved to New York and took a job for Newsweek but got fired because he refused to use medium format cameras. Afterwards he took a job for Life Magazine. In 1945 Smith was hit by a Mortar fire while photographing battle conditions on Okinawa. He recovered and continued at Life Magazine until 1945. Smith worked to perfect the technique of photo essay. William then left Life magazine because the way the magazine had used his photographs of Albert Schweitzer. He later joined Magnum Photo Agency in 1955. He started a project to document the city of Pittsburgh which was supposed to take 3 weeks but went on to 3 years. It took tens of thousands of photograph negatives. Because it was so big, it could never be shown but was later put into a book. Smith was attacked in 1972 by Chisso Company, near Tokyo in an attempt to stop him from further publicizing the effects of Minamata disease. Smith survived the attack but his sight in one eye was deteriorated. Because of his injuries, Smith's wife, Aileen Smith had to take over. Smith and Aileen lived in the city of Minamata from 1971-1973. They created a photo essay on the effects of Minamata disease, which was caused by a Chisso Factory for discharging heavy metals in the water sources around Minamata. The essay was published in 1957 entitled, " Minamata', Words and Photographs by W.E Smith and A.M Smith."One of his most famous works, Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath, was taken in December 1971 and published in 1972 after the attack. The photo drew world wide attention to the effects of the disease. Smith died of a massive stroke on October 15, 1978, in Tuscon, Arizona. he was buried in Pleasant Valley, New York.
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