
Woven into the stories about each of the patients is the story of the doctor himself. You even get to see the doctor at home, taking calls in the middle of the night, ready to hit the road and help a patient. Settings vary - you learn that the doctor travels from his own office to the homes of others as needed. The photos don’t shy away from the concern of parents or any of the things that the people within the images are feeling. Throughout various images within the essay, you get to see the doctor treating everything from bumps and bruises to major injuries and terminal conditions. The more you study this image, the more you come to know the doctor and his setting before you move on with the story.Īnd the rest of that story is told in rich detail. The doctor himself walks with shoulders slumped, an interesting expression on his face. For instance, the doctor walks through weedy grass, past a weathered fence - obviously, as the name implies, he is in the country. By examining it fully, you can get a sense of how the story might progress. This one image sets the stage for the entire story. This essay opens with a photo of a man in a suit, carrying a doctor’s bag.


To see an example of this kind of storytelling, look no further than the essay Country Doctor. Eugene Smith, the photo essays that he created between 1945 and his death in 1978 are what really stand out, giving all of us meaningful insights as to how we can effectively tell an enthralling story through the printed photograph. While there is so much that we can learn from the life and artistry of W. It was while Smith worked for LIFE and for the Magnum agency that he really developed the photo essay into what it is today. Smith continued his career with LIFE until 1955 when he quit the magazine to join the Magnum agency. By 1947, he was back with LIFE, beginning his work on developing the photo essay genre. His work was put on hold for the next two years as he underwent several surgeries and recuperated. That same year, however, Smith was gravely wounded by a mortar while photographing a battle at Okinawa.

When the Americans went on the offensive against Japan, Smith traveled with them, documenting prisoners of war and other imagery at Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Saipan and elsewhere. By this time, he’d become a war correspondent, working in the Pacific theater during World War II. Newsweek ended up firing him over this so Smith struck out on his own, becoming a freelance photographer for the Black Star agency.įrom there, his skill with the camera landed him a job with Flying magazine, then by 1945, he was working for LIFE.
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Smith favored the 35mm camera, even though at the time, many photographers and photojournalists still used medium-format cameras. That same year, he also began a new job with Newsweek. By 1937, he was working with Helene Sanders of the New York Institute of Photography. He went on to attend Notre Dame, winning a scholarship in photography that was designed exclusively for him. Eugene Smith, a man who became famous for taking the photo essay and turning it into the beautiful in-depth story that we know it as today.īorn in Wichita, Kansas in 1918, Smith’s photography career began early, when he was just 15 years old, taking photographs for local newspapers. There are many photographers who have made monumental contributions to the art.
