W. Eugene Smith
Home call at 8:30 a.m. starts Ceriani's day

Home call at 8:30 a.m. starts Ceriani's day

© Estate of W. Eugene Smith

Home call at 8:30 a.m. starts Ceriani's day
Home call at 8:30 a.m. starts Ceriani's day
ArtistAmerican, 1918–1978
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Home call at 8:30 a.m. starts Ceriani's day
  • from the series The Country Doctor
Date1948
PlaceKremmling, Colorado, United States
MediumGelatin silver print
Dimensions9 1/8 × 13 1/2 in. (23.2 × 34.3 cm) (image)
9 5/8 × 14 in. (sheet)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by "One Great Night in November, 2001" and by Dr. John P. McGovern and various other donors
Object number2001.243
Not on view

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Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

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.





ProvenanceTime-Life Collection; Howard Greenberg.
Exhibition History"W. Eugene Smith and James Nachtwey," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 14 October 2012 - 1 January 2013.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Marked in pencil on verso:
"PHOTO #5530064"
"PF34759TL"
"Fred Potlorf (?), Jr. lives on edge of town/...(?)"
"Country Dr. Ernest Ceriani of Kremmling, Colo.-/makes a home call- patient, a printer had/fever & symptoms of flue so could not make /office call."
Numerous other pencil and crayon marks.
Stamped on verso:
"©_____Time Inc. All Rights Reserved./No reproduction, commercial display...permission of the copyright holder"
"LIFE PHOTO/BY/W. EUGENE SMITH"
"AUG 16 1948"
"USED IN LIFE SEP 20 1948"
"INTERNATIONAL EDITION OCT 11 1948"
"COUNTRY DOCTOR"
"LIFE PRINT/BY/GERALD LOWTHER"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Contents of Dr. Ceriani's bag
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.254
Dr. Ceriani's hospital can accommodate a total of 14 patients
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.249
5:00 a.m. Dr. Ceriani begins his day fishing in Colorado River
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.232
4:15 a.m. Dr. Ceriani gets a ride to Gore Canyon
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.231
2:00 a.m., Dr. Ceriani has coffee and a cigarette in hospital kitchen
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.229
cropped recto of sheet
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
85.95
Another home call
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.230
The day's first office call
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.246
Dr. Ceriani tapes broken ribs
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.237
Dr. Ceriani carries a patient from basement ward to operating room
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.235
Before the amputation, Dr. Ceriani checks the patient's blood pressure
W. Eugene Smith
1948
Gelatin silver print
2001.236