Dr. Kraushaar, President of Goucher College

W. Eugene Smith’s passion for photography started when he was just nine years old. His mother, a photographer herself, gave him a camera and even developed his photos in her homemade darkroom. Others saw these photos in his hometown of Witchita, Kansas, and he became a photographer for the local newspaper. 

 

Smith received a photography scholarship to the University of Notre Dame, where he became an active photographer on campus. Opportunities, including shooting the football team in action, paved the way for his passion to “capture the action of life.” With all his focus on photography, he struggled through his school work and ultimately left the University in his second semester to attend the New York Institute of Photography. After completing the academic year in New York, he went to work for Newsweek while freelancing with other significant publications, including LIFE and The New York Times.

 

During World War II, Smith became a war correspondent documenting the U.S. Marines and Japanese prisoners of war. This service, unfortunately, left him severely injured. After years of recuperating, Smith traveled to Colorado to photograph a small-town doctor who provided health care for his community of 2,000 and dealt with life and loss daily. Country Doctor, published in LIFE Magazine in 1948, was regarded as a defining moment for photojournalism. Smith continued to capture unseen and untold stories in photographs throughout the world for the rest of his life.