Smith (1918–1978) first gained wide recognition when he was hired by Life Magazine to cover American troops in the Pacific during World War II. After recovering from the wounds he received in the battle for Okinawa, Smith produced four major photographic essays for Life, including his most famous, Country Doctor.

W. Eugene Smith spent weeks immersing himself in the lives of his subjects, a practice that differed from the standard of the time. However, the success of Smith’s pictures with both his editors and the magazine’s public won him the right to spend the time he needed and wanted on each assignment, at least for a while.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, owns nearly a complete version of Smith’s 1948 photographic essay Country Doctor, as it was originally published in Life magazine. Dr. Ernest Ceriani, a physician in private practice in Kremmling, Colorado (population 1,000), was the subject. Smith followed him as he tended to the town’s medical needs, which ranged from stitches for a child kicked by a horse, to draining an infected ear, to basic surgery. Dr. Ceriani’s office had 14 beds and served as the town hospital.