country doctor photo essay

‘Country Doctor’: W. Eugene Smith’s Landmark Photo Essay

Dr. Ernest Ceriani made a house call on foot, Kremmling, Colo., 1948. The generalist was the lone physician serving a Rocky Mountain enclave that covered 400 square miles.

W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Written By: Ben Cosgrove

For his groundbreaking 1948 LIFE magazine photo essay, “Country Doctor” — seen here, in its entirety, followed by several unpublished photographs from the shoot — photographer W. Eugene Smith spent 23 days in Kremmling, Colo., chronicling the day-to-day challenges faced by an indefatigable general practitioner named Dr. Ernest Ceriani.

Born on a sheep ranch in Wyoming, Dr. Ceriani attended Chicago’s Loyola School of Medicine but opted not to pursue a medical career in the big city. In 1946, after a stint in the Navy, he was recruited by the hospital in Kremmling, and he and wife Bernetha, who was born in Colorado, settled into the rural town. Dr. Ceriani was the sole physician for an area of about 400 square miles, inhabited by some 2,000 people.

Eugene Smith’s at-times almost unsettlingly intimate pictures illustrate in poignant detail the challenges faced by a modest, tireless rural physician—and gradually reveal the inner workings and the outer trappings of what is clearly a uniquely rewarding life.

“Country Doctor” was an instant classic when published, establishing Smith as a master of the commanding young art form of the photo essay, and solidifying his stature as one of the most passionate and influential photojournalists of the 20th century. In 1979, the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund was founded to support those working in the profoundly humanistic style of photography to which Smith dedicated his life and his art.

Dr. Ernest Ceriani made a house call on foot, Kremmling, Colo., 1948. The generalist was the lone physician serving a Rocky Mountain enclave that covered 400 square miles. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Ralph Pickering held his 5-week-old baby while waiting to be Dr. Ceriani’s first patient of the day. Pickering, a horseback guide to tourists coming to see the majestic Rocky Mountains, traveled from an outlying ranch to reach the doctor’s office. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dr. Ceriani sat at the bedside of a patient as he assessed flu symptoms during a house call. When Smith began “Country Doctor,” he shot for a period of time with no film in his camera, to help Ceriani get used to his presence without wasting precious film. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

In the backseat of a car, Dr. Ceriani administered a shot of morphine to a 60-year-old tourist from Chicago, seen here with her grandson, who was suffering from a mild heart disturbance. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dr. Ceriani examined a feverish 4-year-old girl suffering from tonsillitis. Although most of his patients were children, Ceriani was initially inexperienced in pediatrics when he started his practice, and studied up on it whenever he had the chance. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Though he had no vacations and few days off, Dr. Ceriani did have use of a small hospital, which was equipped with an X-ray machine, an autoclave and an oxygen tent, among other medical necessities. Here, he explained an X-ray — he developed the film himself — to one of his rancher patients. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The doctor taped a patient who broke some ribs after a horse rolled over him. “His income for covering a dozen fields is less than a city doctor makes by specializing in just one,” LIFE’s editors noted, “but Ceriani is compensated by the affection of his patients and neighbors, by the high place he has earned in his community and by the fact that he is his own boss. For him, this is enough.” W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dr. Ceriani used a syringe to irrigate wax from an elderly man’s ear to improve his hearing. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dr. Ceriani examined the stitches in the lacerated hand of a young patient. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Two friends transported Dr. Ceriani to Gore Canyon so he could enjoy a few hours of recreational fishing, a rare treat for the hard-working physician. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dr. Ceriani fly-fished on the Colorado River. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Thirty minutes into his fishing excursion, Dr. Ceriani was called to an emergency: A young girl hasd been kicked in the head by a horse and was badly injured. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The child’s worried parents looked on as Dr. Ceriani, surrounded by nurses, examined their two-year-old daughter. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dr. Ceriani had stitched the girl’s wound to minimize scarring, but he then had to find a way to tell the parents that her eye could not be saved and they needed to take her a specialist in Denver to have it removed. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The doctor helped a rancher carry his son into the hospital. The inebriated young man dislocated his elbow when he was thrown from a bronco at a rodeo. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The injured elbow required a painful reset. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

“Don’t tell my mother,” said the young man. Still under the effects of ether, he didn’t realize she’d been holding his hand during the procedure. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dr. Ceriani checked the blood pressure of 85-year-old Thomas Mitchell, who came to the hospital with a gangrenous leg. Knowing that Mitchell might not be strong enough to endure the necessary amputation, Ceriani had been postponing surgery. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

When Mitchell finally rallied, the doctor gently carried him from the basement ward up to the operating room of the hospital, which had no elevator. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dr. Ceriani gave the 85-year-old man spinal anesthesia before amputating his gangrenous left leg. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dr. Ceriani responded to a late-night call when an 82-year-old man suffered a heart attack at a boarding house. Town marshal Chancy Van Pelt and one of the man’s fellow tenants stood by. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Knowing the man who suffered the heart attack at the boarding house will not make it through the night, Dr. Ceriani called for a priest from the kitchen. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dr. Ceriani helped the town marshal carry the heart attack victim to the ambulance. There, the country doctor would see that his patient was as comfortable as possible, knowing there was nothing he can do to save him. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The treeless ranching community of Kremmling, Colo., stood on a 7,000-ft. plateau beneath the towering Rocky Mountains. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Dr. Ceriani held 11-month-old son Gary as his wife, Bernetha, steadied 3-year-old Phillip on a fence while watching a parade. Though they’d been married for four years at the time Smith was profiling the doctor, Mrs. Ceriani still struggled with the unpredictability of her husband’s schedule. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A fund-raising committee in Kremmling was able to raise $35,000 in 1947 to purchase the home of the town’s retiring physician and turn it into a 14-bed hospital. The funds were used to stock the tiny hospital with as much equipment — some of it war surplus — as could be afforded. Middle Park Hospital had only three wards that could accommodate 14 patients. With a new hospital in place, the town then put out a call for a new general practitioner — a call answered by Dr. Ceriani. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

After finishing a surgery that lasted until 2 AM, Dr. Ceriani stood exhausted in the hospital kitchen with a cup of coffee and a cigarette. “The nurses,” LIFE noted, “constantly admonish him to relax and rest, but because they are well aware that he cannot, they keep a potful of fresh coffee simmering for him at all hours.” W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Dr. Ernest Ceriani in the small Kremmling, Colo., hospital. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Doctor Ceriani checked 4-year-old Jimmy Free’s foot, cut when the boy stepped on broken glass. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Dr. Ceriani examined his handiwork after the partial amputation of a patient’s leg, Kremmling, Colo., August 1948. The patient, Thomas Mitchell, was suffering from a gangrenous infection. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. An operating room in Kremmling, Colo. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Dr. Ceriani with a patient. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Dr. Ernest Ceriani delivered a baby. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Maternity ward, Kremmling, Colo., 1948. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. An incubator in Kremmling, Colo., 1948. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. The contents of a country doctor’s bag, Kremmling, Colo., 1948. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Doctor Ceriani and town marshal Chancey Van Pelt carried a patient from a cabin in the hills near Kremmling, Colo., 1948. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Dr. Ernest Ceriani on his way to a house call in foul weather, Kremmling, Colo., 1948. W. Eugene Smith/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

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• LIFE Photo Essay

W. Eugene Smith’s Landmark Portrait: ‘Country Doctor’

F or his groundbreaking 1948 LIFE magazine photo essay, “Country Doctor” — seen here, in its entirety, followed by several unpublished photographs from the shoot — photographer W. Eugene Smith spent 23 days in Kremmling, Colo., chronicling the day-to-day challenges faced by an indefatigable general practitioner named Dr. Ernest Ceriani.

Six decades later, Smith’s images from those three weeks remain as fresh as they were the moment he took them, and as revelatory as they surely felt to millions of LIFE’s readers as they encountered Dr. Ceriani, his patients and his fellow tough, uncompromising Coloradans.

Born on a sheep ranch in Wyoming, Dr. Ceriani attended Chicago’s Loyola School of Medicine but opted not to pursue a medical career in the big city. In 1946, after a stint in the Navy, he was recruited by the hospital in Kremmling, and he and wife Bernetha, who was born in Colorado, settled into the rural town. Dr. Ceriani was the sole physician for an area of about 400 square miles, inhabited by some 2,000 people.

Eugene Smith’s at-times almost unsettlingly intimate pictures illustrate in poignant detail the challenges faced by a modest, tireless rural physician — and gradually reveal the inner workings and the outer trappings of what is clearly a uniquely rewarding life.

“Country Doctor” was an instant classic when first published, establishing Smith as a master of the uniquely commanding young art form of the photo essay, and solidifying his stature as one of the most passionate and influential photojournalists of the 20th century. In 1979, the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund was founded to support those working in the profoundly humanistic style of photography to which Smith dedicated his life and his art.

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The Picture Show

From the library of 'life', revisiting 'country doctor,' a 1948 photo essay.

Claire O'Neill

Dr. Ernest Ceriani, the subject of a 1948 Life magazine story titled "Country Doctor," pauses after a long surgery. W. Eugene Smith/Life hide caption

Dr. Ernest Ceriani, the subject of a 1948 Life magazine story titled "Country Doctor," pauses after a long surgery.

"Although 20 percent of Americans live in rural areas only 9 percent of the nation's physicians practice there." That's according to a 2004 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In short, the study reads, "despite greater need for health care, rural residents have fewer visits to health care providers and are less likely to receive recommended preventive services."

Of course, that's just one study. Although, personally, I know I'd be a lot less inclined to see the doctor if walk-ins weren't available a few blocks away.

It makes sense that health care would be difficult to access in remote locations. You either have to move to the medicine, or it has to come to you. What kind of person does it take to be a country doctor? Here's one example, now almost 65 years old.

Photographer W. Eugene Smith became a war photographer for Life magazine in 1942. Though seriously wounded while photographing World War II, he returned to photojournalism and made a big splash with this 1948 photo essay about the life of Dr. Ernest Ceriani, a practitioner in the small town of Kremmling, Colo.

The result of 23 days with Ceriani, Country Doctor "was an instant classic," according to Life.com, where the original essay has just been republished in its entirety , "setting Smith firmly on a path as a master of the unique art form of the photo essay, and solidifying his status as one of the most passionate and influential photojournalists of the 20th century."

As it is today and likely always will be, health care was an important issue in 1948, and Life wanted to explore that issue by focusing on, as it were, a life. I'd be interested in seeing the life of a contemporary country doctor. Do you know any?

Country Doctor

The life of a country doctor in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, a landmark photoessay by W. Eugene Smith

W. Eugene Smith

Although he was only a member of Magnum for four years between 1955 and 58, acclaimed photographer W. Eugene Smith had a lasting impact on both the agency and photojournalism in general. Smith compared his mode of working to that of a playwright; the powerful narrative structures of his photo essays set a new benchmark for the genre. His series, The Country Doctor , shot on assignment for Life Magazine in 1948, documents the everyday life of Dr Ernest Guy Ceriani, a GP tasked with providing 24-hour medical care to over 2,000 people in the small town of Kremmling, in the Rocky Mountains. The story was important at the time for drawing attention to the national shortage of country doctors and the impact of this on remote communities. Today the photoessay is widely regarded as representing a definitive moment in the history of photojournalism.

Central to Smith’s practice was what he described as fading “into the wallpaper.” Although he was on assignment for just four weeks, his ability to melt into the surroundings is evident. From close-up shots of Ceriani performing surgery to photographs of the exhausted doctor sleeping atop his own operating table, the photoessay provides an unusually personal insight into the intimacies of a doctor’s working life. Describing the experience of being Smith’s subject-matter, Ceriani himself observed: “He would always be present. He would always be in the shadows. I would make the introduction and then go about my business as if he were just a door knob.”

"He would always be present. He would always be in the shadows. I would make the introduction and then go about my business as if he were just a door knob"

- dr ernest ceriani.

A “physician, surgeon, obstetrician, pediatrician, psychiatrist, dentist, oculist and laboratory technician,” as Life described him, Ceriani trained Chicago’s Loyola School of Medicine, then decided against a career as a doctor in the city, He was recruited by the hospital in Kremmling to be the sole physician for the area. Through Smith’s images, we are guided through the rigors of the doctor’s exhausting schedule: treating the daily ills, big and small, of an entire community, from administering an injection of morphine in the back of a car to the haunting photographs of an amputation. But the series also highlights the rewards of Ceriani’s work, his dedication to the job earning him the respect of his patients.

Returning from assignment, Smith selected two hundred images to send to Life but was infuriated by the way the magazine chose to lay out the story. Like many of his other seminal photoessays, The Country Doctor works in series: the arrangement of images providing viewers with a carefully crafted snapshot of Ceriani’s existence. With the order of his photographs being as important as each individual frame, falling into disagreement with publications over their edits was a common occurrence for Smith. Ultimately, however, his work is so distinctive because it takes the format of the traditional photoessay while infusing the stories with a psychological depth and intricacy of narrative heretofore unprecedented in photojournalism.

After several prior resignations, Smith finally left Life in 1954, after a disagreement over the edit of his essay on Albert Schweitzer, to embark on what he believed was to be his most important work: a photographic homage to the city of Pittsburg. The following year, he joined Magnum on the assurance that he would be able to freely pursue his own personal projects. His Pittsburg work became almost an obsession: commissioned to spend just three weeks in the city, Smith remained for three years and produced tens of thousands of images. The assignment bankrupted Smith; Magnum, too, felt the financial effects of supporting such a mammoth endeavor. His unrelenting dedication to the Pittsburg project however is a testament to Smith’s devotion to photojournalism and commitment to, as he put it: “searching for the truth, for the answer to how to do a picture story”.

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Exploring the ‘Country Doctor’ Photo Essay by W. Eugene Smith

by ASMP | Aug 7, 2019 | ASMP Legends

Cross-posted from PDNPulse [by Greg Scoblete ]

In 1948, W. Eugene Smith was commissioned by Life Magazine  to profile Dr. Ernest Guy Ceriani, a traveling doctor who provided 24-hour care to residents of the small town of Kremmling, in the Rocky Mountains.

As Magnum notes, the series “is widely regarded as representing a definitive moment in the history of photojournalism.” Part of its power lies in Smith’s “wallpaper” approach to photography–he faded into the background so he could capture intimate moments.

Martin from All About Street Photography has produced this interesting exploration of the  Country Doctor  series for those who want to take a deeper dive into this iconic work.

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Country Doctor, Eugene Smith, 1948

from Ronaldo Entler

For his groundbreaking 1948 LIFE magazine photo essay, “Country Doctor” — seen here, in its entirety, followed by several unpublished photographs from the shoot — photographer W. Eugene Smith spent 23 days in Kremmling, Colorado, chronicling the day-to-day challenges faced by an indefatigable general practitioner named Dr. Ernest Ceriani.

Six decades later, Smith’s images from those three weeks remain as fresh as they were the moment he took them, and as revelatory as they surely felt to millions of LIFE’s readers the instant they opened the issue in which they appeared, and encountered Dr. Ceriani, his patients, and his fellow tough, uncompromising Coloradoans.

Eugene Smith’s at-times almost unsettlingly intimate pictures illustrate in poignant detail the challenges faced by a modest, tireless rural physician — and gradually reveal the inner workings and the outer trappings of what is clearly a uniquely rewarding life.

“Country Doctor” was an instant classic when first published, establishing Smith as a master of the uniquely commanding young art form of the photo essay, and solidifying his stature as one of the most passionate and influential photojournalists of the 20th century.

Read more: life.time.com/history/life-classic-eugene-smiths-country-doctor/

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W. Eugene Smith’s ‘Country Doctor’: Revisiting a Landmark Photo Essay

‘Country Doctor’ was an instant classic when first published in LIFE in 1948, establishing W. Eugene Smith as a master of the photo essay.

Source: W. Eugene Smith’s ‘Country Doctor’: Revisiting a Landmark Photo Essay

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W. Eugene Smith: Father of the Photo Essay

View this post on Instagram 📷 W. Eugene Smith in his studio. 📷 Photo: Leslie Teicholz, 1970-1971 #ICPCollections A post shared by Int'l Center of Photography (@icp) on Sep 16, 2017 at 5:48pm PDT

William Eugene Smith was born in Kansas in 1918. He was given his first camera at the age of 9 after he wanted to photograph airplanes. By the age of 15, he was already published in local newspapers.

Sadly, his father committed suicide the same year Smith graduated from high school. When the local news twisted the story about his father’s death, it inspired him to start his photojournalist career. This event shaped him and his standards for the rest of his life.

Available light is any damn light that is available! — W. Eugene Smith

When he moved to New York, he worked for several magazines, including Life . He was known to be a perfectionist and stubborn, and he was even fired from Newsweek because he refused to stop using his 35mm Contax in favor of large-format negatives.

When we talk about his work, it’s very hard to present his pictures in a complete way. He typically shot what we would today call a photo essay: when he was assigned to cover a story, he would create tens of thousands of pictures to support it. So even though I know it is not possible to cover every event in his life, I have picked some assignments that I think will illustrate his photography.

One of the first assignments Smith took was a photojournalistic profile of Maude E. Callen, a trained nurse and midwife in South Carolina. Smith photographed her for six weeks during her work taking care of her patients.

Deeply moved by her work he wrote:

No story could translate justly the life depth of this wonderful, patient, directional woman who is my subject — and I love her, do love her with a respect I hold for almost no one. Humble, I am in the presence of this simple, complex, positive, greatness; on end on in herself appointed rounds beyond paid-for duty.

View this post on Instagram Maude E. Callen was a nurse-midwife in South Carolina for 60 years. She operated a rural community clinic out of her home and attended between 600-800 births throughout her career in addition to training others in midwifery care. She provided in-home services to a 400-square mile area of predominantly impoverished people of color. In 1951, this photo by celebrated photojournalist W. Eugene Smith was published in a 12-page photo essay about Callen in LIFE magazine. Smith spent weeks observing her providing midwifery services and is quoted as saying Maude “is the most completely fulfilled person I have ever known.” __ Written by @katievigos Source: Wikipedia Photo: W. Eugene Smith __ #midwifery #blackhistorymonth #midwife #empoweredbirthproject #maudecallen A post shared by Empowered Birth Project (@empoweredbirthproject) on Feb 27, 2018 at 7:57pm PST

After that, American readers actually donated money to build her clinic in South Carolina.

Country Doctor

I discussed this photo essay in my previous article . If you would like to find out more about this topic, you can also watch this previous video:

In 1954, Smith resigned from Life magazine, mostly because of their restrictions, and joined Magnum Photos as an associate. His next project was actually to photography Pittsburgh for picture editor Stefan Lorant’s pictorial history of the city.

W. Eugene Smith was born on this day 99 years ago. #eugenesmithfund #weugenesmith #eugenesmith #genesmith Pittsburgh, 1955-56 © Heirs of W. Eugene Smith pic.twitter.com/W9VIyisWFZ — W. Eugene Smith Fund (@EugeneSmithFund) December 30, 2017

The project that was supposed to take three weeks turned into a three-year project with more than 17,000 images. The book was eventually published as Pittsburgh: The Story of an American City , and Lorant used 64 images taken by Smith.

When looking at his photos, you can see contrasts he emphasized: water and land, steel and grass, rich and poor. Smith seemed to be little conflicted when later judging this project. He saw it as a failure, as it was unfinished, but also as the finest set of photographs he had ever produced.

Jazz Loft Project

The Jazz Loft project is a series of recordings and photographs taken by Smith from 1957 to 1965 at a Manhattan loft . It contains approximately 4,000 hours of recordings and almost 40,000 photographs.

The cataloging and preserving of his work are directed by Sam Stephenson at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in cooperation with the Center for Creative Photography.

Japan and Minamata

In 1971, Smith and his wife Aileen stayed in a small fishing village for three years. He helped to uncover the story of Minamata disease, a tragedy caused by mercury poisoning caused by the Chisso factory, which was spoiling water sources with heavy metals, resulting in children being born with disabilities. PHOTO: https://www.instagram.com/p/BwRabnXjO_B/ The story was published by several magazines and newspapers after Smith and his wife were attacked by Chisso employees and almost did not survive the attack.

View this post on Instagram “Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes – just sometimes – one photograph or a group of them can lure our senses into awareness. Much depends upon the viewer; in some, photographs can summon enough emotion to be a catalyst to thought.” – W. Eugene Smith . W. Eugene Smith made his last photo essay about industrial mercury poisoning in the Japanese city of Minamata, helping to bring justice and visibility to the victims. . Today on Magnum: We speak to Smith's then-wife and photographic partner Aileen M. Smith about their collaboration on the project. Link in bio. . PHOTO: Takako Isayama, a 12-year-old fetal (congenital) victim of the Minamata disease, with her mother. Minamata. Japan. 1972 . © #WEugeneSmith/#MagnumPhotos A post shared by Magnum Photos (@magnumphotos) on Apr 15, 2019 at 3:01am PDT

“Minamata” was Smith’s last big photo essay. After Japan, he first returned back to New York, and soon after that to Arizona to teach at the University of Arizona. However, he suffered several strokes and died in 1978.

About the author : Martin Kaninsky is a photographer, reviewer, and YouTuber based in Prague, Czech Republic. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. Kaninsky runs the channel All About Street Photography . You can find more of his work on his website , Instagram , and YouTube channel .

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W. Eugene Smith's Photo Essay Collection in Life Magazine

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• Five Favorite Photos

Five Favorite Photos – W. Eugene Smith, Master of the Photo Essay

Josh solomon.

• July 23, 2018

To pick only five photos from any distinguished photographer’s catalog is difficult most days. Today, in particular, it’s outright impossible. That’s because today’s subject is none other than the master of the photo essay, W. Eugene Smith.

Smith’s career is the stuff of legend. His work includes classic photo essays such as Country Doctor, Minamata, and his magnum opus, Pittsburgh, a photo essay so large in scope that it still hasn’t been seen in its entirety. With every successive collection of photos, Smith pushed the form of the photo essay (and photography itself) to its very limits.

When I look back on all the photographers I’ve studied, W. Eugene Smith is the one who’s influenced me the most. I find I can always come back to one of his photos and see and learn something new every time, whether it be about composition, photo technique, or photo ethics. So instead of trying to reduce his impossibly large catalog of images down to his five absolute best, I’m going to pick the five images from which I’ve learned the most, and what they’ve taught me. Let’s get started.

Waiting For Survivors

This first photo is my personal favorite of W. Eugene Smith’s, and a great introduction to his work. Not only does it showcase Smith’s signature style of classically informed composition, it also reveals his sensitivity towards the often tragic events he was assigned to cover.  

“Waiting for Survivors” came about in the immediate aftermath of the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria, an Italian ocean liner bound for New York City. The tragedy was, and still is, the worst disaster to occur in United States waters and one that newspapers clamored to cover.

One would expect such coverage to involve shocking photos of the sinking ship, or of survivors being helped ashore (and there were plenty of those images made by other photogs). Eugene Smith thought differently. Instead of inducing shock, he wanted empathize with his audience by portraying the nervous anticipation of a nation as the lives of Andrea Doria’s passengers hung in the balance.

Smith accomplished this with the image of a nun waiting for news about the survivors of the wreck. A scene like this is already ripe for a photojournalist’s picking, but it is Smith’s timing and compositional nous that makes it special. Smith caught the nun leaning slightly to the left, with her hand covering her mouth and eyes looking upward in anticipation. Smith also makes the nun’s white habit do double-duty in this image; it frames her face and also provides emphasis by way of stark contrast from the grey background. It’s a simple composition, but one timed and crafted with Smith’s signature standard of perfection.

The Walk to Paradise Garden

“The Walk to Paradise Garden” is a tonal shift from Smith’s often intense and tragic subject matter. But it’s precisely because of this shift that it was one of Smith’s personal favorite photos. Devoid of context, the image of two children walking out of a dark forest toward the light is already beautiful as it is. But when we understand the backstory of this shot it becomes even more poignant.

Two years before this picture was taken, Eugene Smith worked as a photojournalist in the Pacific theater of World War II, photographing the horrors of war from Iwo Jima to Guam. During this time, he was wounded by shell fragmentation and was sent home. His recovery, both physically and psychologically, was brutal to such an extent that he couldn’t even use his camera.

After two years, Smith became fed up and impatient with the recovery process and decided one day to load a roll of film. Seeing as his previous photographs were of pain and tragedy, he wanted his first photograph in two years to be one of hope and new life, and so he chose as his subjects his own children, Pat and Juanita.

As for the rest of this story, it’s best for the man himself to tell it:

“Pat saw something in the clearing, he grasped Juanita by the hand and they hurried forward. While I followed my children into the undergrowth and the group of taller trees—how they were delighted at every little discovery!—and observed them, I suddenly realized that at this moment, in spite of everything, in spite of all the wars and all I had gone through that day, I wanted to sing a sonnet to life and to the courage to go on living it….”

Spanish Wake  

Spanish Wake is a fascinating piece of Eugene Smith’s body of work in that it contains a great many lessons for the photographer, as well as insight into Smith’s own philosophy towards making images.

On one level, this is an example of Smith’s classically informed style of composition. He heightens the drama of the scene by way of heavy contrast, which is so heavy that it creates a dramatic chiaroscuro effect (favored by painters such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt) which naturally emphasizes everything the light hits. Smith also paid particular attention to the eye-lines of each subject, which eventually lead the viewer straight to the corpse laying upon the bed, as well as expressing the inner grief of each of the mourning subjects. It’s also worth noting that this photo bears an eerie resemblance to one of Rembrandt’s masterpieces, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp . Whether or not this was intentional is anybody’s guess, but considering Smith’s penchant for classicism I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.

On another level, the creation of this photo can teach us a little bit about photo ethics. If the lighting in this photo seems too perfect to be natural, that’s because it’s staged. The photo’s lighting, subject placement, and even the eye-lines are all either staged or retouched. Candid photography purists may be put off by this, but to this end Smith himself offers up his own arguments.

For Smith, authenticity of the emotion of a scene outweighed the authenticity of the scene itself. In a publicized interview between him and another great photographer, Philippe Halsmann, Smith says, “I don’t object to staging only if I feel that it is an intensification of something that is absolutely authentic to the place.” Smith’s code of ethics dictated that he only ask the family for permission to photograph (which was given enthusiastically by the son of the deceased) and then felt it was his duty to authentically portray the grief of the family. For him, that was justification enough to retouch.

His last words on the subject in the interview illuminates his attitude towards editing more than any others:

“I didn’t write the rules — why should I follow them? Since I put a great deal of time and research to know what I am about? I ask and arrange if I feel it is legitimate. The honesty lies in my — the photographer’s — ability to understand.”

Country Doctor

Perhaps Eugene Smith’s most famous series of photos is the Country Doctor photo essay. It’s the essay that established him as the master of that form, and set the standard for every photo essay to follow.

In 1948, the US was experiencing an alarming shortage of doctors practicing in remote areas, and LIFE decided to show how damaging the shortage really was. W. Eugene Smith was then assigned by the magazine to cover Dr. Ernest Guy Ceriani, a country doctor practicing in the small town of Kremmling, Colorado. The ensuing essay would see Smith following Dr. Ceriani throughout the town and countryside, detailing the often gruesome cases Ceriani would be called upon to fix at any hour.

What makes this particular essay such a masterwork was Smith’s ability to capture the raw emotion of Ceriani and his patients. By what Smith called “fading into the wallpaper”, he was able to get up close to Ceriani and his patients at a truly personal level. Through his lens we can really see and feel the exasperation and desperation of a single doctor called upon to care for a small town and four hundred miles of countryside, as well as the terror and pain of that area’s afflicted citizens.

Of the many incredible photos in the essay, my favorite is Smith’s portrait of Ceriani at rest after performing an operation. Ceriani’s tired slump as well as his blank downward gaze perfectly epitomizes his reaction to the near-Sisyphusian task of caring for an entire countryside by himself. Smith finishes the image by casting Ceriani in a harsh light and using high contrast, elevating the stress and tension of his situation.

Iwazo Funaba’s Crippled Hand

Our last photo is one from W. Eugene Smith’s final photo essay, Minamata. Hardcore Smith fans may be expecting the flagship photo of this essay, which happens to also one of the finest photos ever made , but out of respect for the family and memory of those depicted we will choose a different but equally powerful image; Iwazo Funaba’s Crippled Hand.

Iwazo Funaba was one of the many victims of Minamata disease, a disease caused by the illegal dumping of industrial waste by the Chisso Corporation in the small fishing town of Minamata, Japan. The waste bioaccumulated in the fish and the seas surrounding Minamata, and when the fish were eaten by the town’s residents, the result was severe mercury poisoning. Over a span of thirty-six years, tens of thousands of people were affected by the disease, with little to no intervention by the local government or the Chisso Corporation.

W. Eugene Smith and his wife Aileen Smith took it upon themselves to chronicle the sufferings of Minamata’s citizens from 1971 to 1973 in the hope that they could raise awareness about Minamata disease. What resulted was a masterclass of a photo essay. The entire collection of photos illustrates perfectly the horrors of Minamata disease, with Smith using wide-angle distortion, high contrast, and extreme close-ups to heighten the horror of these already horrific scenes.

Of the many incredible images in this essay (including the aforementioned), the photo of Iwazo Funaba’s crippled hand always stands out to me. Smith’s use of shallow depth-of-field is masterful here, as Funaba’s out-of-focus head serves as the perfect background to her contorted hand. We can also make out that Funaba’s head is tilted upwards and her mouth is agape, which suggests that she’s screaming in pain. Gruesome as it is, it’s a powerful image that perfectly communicates the pain of the diseased victims.

W. Eugene Smith’s repertoire is much more vast than this list can suggest, and I would highly recommend that any aspiring photographer or photo enthusiast delve deeper into his catalog. Below are some useful links:

The Jazz Loft (movie)

Nurse Midwife

Albert Schweitzer in Africa

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Josh Solomon is a freelance writer and touring bassist living in Los Angeles. He has an affinity for all things analog. When not onstage, you can find him roaming around Southern California shooting film and humming a tune.

Wow … thank you for providing this short excerpt 😉

Josh, you’re helping to make this the best site out there.

Great stuff.

amazing content, thank you vey much keep up

A great article about one of my favorite photographers. I always thought it was interesting that he used such a variety of different cameras. It seems like a lot of the great phographers preferred one type or another, but Gene seemed to switch it up a lot. What a lot he witnessed in his too short life….

Thank you. Gene Smith is probably the photographer I most admire and try to emulate; I saved the 1959 Popular Photography Annual containing his Pittsburgh essay for more than 40 years until I gave it to a young newspaper photographer when he married my niece. Smith wasn’t fond, to say the least, of the layout and reproduction quality of the Pop Photo publication. After his Minamata essay came out, Smith was severely beaten by Chisso company thugs — suffering injuries that lasted the rest of his life, I think. I have his Minamata book.

Thank you for this site. I have the picture The Walk to Paradise Garden. I finally got a chance to look up W. Eugene Smith’s other photography. Poignant and beautiful. This knowing of the background of this picture is bringing me hope in this Pandemic we are going through in NY at this time.

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Five favorite photos – imogen cunningham’s after ninety, five favorite photos – mathew brady & co. shoot the civil war, five favorite photos – elliot erwitt.

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The life and times of the country doctor

A photo essay from 1948 captures the life of a small town country doctor in vivid detail.

Our cover story, “A century of primary care transformation,” focuses in large part on what the daily life of a physician was in the days before insurance, computers and other tools we take for granted today. In fact, it was a time when many physicians still went to patients in home visits, rather than having the patients come to the office or hospital.

What was it actually like, to be a small-town country doctor? Thankfully, a landmark photo series published in Life Magazine in 1948 captured that life in stark and vivid detail.

Shot on assignment by acclaimed photographer W. Eugene Smith to shine a light on the physician shortage in rural communities, the photographs depict the life of Ernest Guy Ceriani, M.D., a general practitioner in a remote town called Kremmling, Colorado., where he was responsible for caring for the entire town, at any hour of the day, no matter what.

Click through the following slides to step back into the world of the country doctor. All images courtesy of The Heirs of W. Eugene Smith.

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