Though widely known as a
photojournalist for Life magazine, W. Eugene Smith photographed so
beautifully, both compositionally and technically, that to describe his images
in terms of journalistic reportage alone is to do them a disservice. They are
at once fine art and documentation, pleasing to the eye and challenging to the
mind. A master of the photographic essay, Smith was able to tell his story
primarily by visual means using a minimum of words as captions. His photo
essays about a Spanish village, a country doctor, and Minamata, Japan, are
legendary in their descriptive power and presence. In another essay about a man
who was a legend himself, Smith photographed Albert Schweitzer in his African
commune and in America. In this photograph, Schweitzer's head is bowed, seemingly
weighed down by the world, although his hair glows as if touched by divine
grace. In a single image, Smith portrays the man and the myth by describing the
doctor's personal modesty and alluding to his spiritual mission.