William Eugene Smith (1918-1978) was an American photojournalist known for his refusal to compromise professional standards and his brutally vivid World War II photographs.

Born in Wichita, Kansas, Smith graduated from Wichita High School North in 1936. He began his career by taking pictures for two local newspapers, the Eagle and the Beacon. He went to New York City and began work for Newsweek and became known for his incessant perfectionism and thorny personality. Smith was fired from Newsweek for refusing to use medium format cameras and joined Life Magazine in 1939. He soon resigned from Life and was wounded in 1942 while simulating battle conditions for Parade magazine.

Notable photographs


* (1944) photograph in which a wounded infant is found by an American soldier on Saipan

* (1945) photograph in which Marines blow up a Japanese blockhouse on Iwo Jima

* "The Walk to Paradise Garden" (1946) single photo of his two children walking hand in hand towards a clearing in woods.

* "Country Doctor" (1948) photo essay on Dr. Ernest Ceriani in the small Colorado town of Kremmling. Credited as the first "photo story" of the modern photojournalism age.

* Spanish Village (1950) photo essay on the small Spanish town of Deleitosa.

* "Nurse Midwife" (1951) photo essay on midwife Maude Callen in South Carolina.

* A Man of Mercy (1954) photo essay on Dr. Albert Schweitzer and his humanitarian work in French Equatorial Africa.

* "Pittsburgh" (1955) year-long project on the city, hired initially by photo editor Stefan Lorant for a three-week assignment.

* Haiti 1958-1959 photo essay on a psychiatric institute in Haiti.

* "Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath" (1971) the centrepiece photograph in Minamata, a long-term photo essay by Smith on the effects of mercury poisoning in the fishing village of Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan (see Minamata disease). The photograph depicts a mother cradling her severely deformed, naked daughter in a traditional Japanese bathing chamber. This has been withdrawn from circulation in accordance with the parents' wishes.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org