41 Quotes by W. Eugene Smith

Never have I found the limits of the photographic potential. Every horizon, upon being reached, reveals another beckoning in the distance. Always, I am on the threshold.

Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes one photograph, or a group of them, can lure our sense of awareness.

The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera.

I've never made any picture, good or bad, without paying for it in emotional turmoil.

Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors.

What's the best type of light? Why that would be available light... and by available light I mean any damn light is available.

With considerable soul searching, that to the utmost of my ability, I have let truth be the prejudice.

My camera, my intentions stopped no man from falling. Nor did they aid him after he had fallen. It could be said that photographs be damned for they bind no wounds. Yet, I reasoned, if my photographs could cause compassionate horror within the viewer, they might also prod the conscience of that viewer into taking action.

My pictures are complex and so am I. When I am almost symbolistic in writing, there is a more limiting difference’s of accepting, while I can be even more complex in the photographs and people can usually accept them within the framework of their own limitations or lack of limitations – there is no dictionary meaning… they can look up for the photographic image and allow it to confuse them.