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Let Truth be the Prejudice: W. Eugene Smith, His Life and Photographs
Photographs by W. Eugene Smith
Illustrated biography by Ben Maddow
Afterword by John G. Morris
Let Truth Be The Prejudice documents the life and work of W. Eugene Smith, a man whose work expanded the range and depth of photography, bringing new aesthetic and moral power to the photo essay. Smith was born in 1918 in Wichita, Kansas, and raised according to traditional American values, believing in the nobility of America and the injustice of war. He began taking pictures with his mother's camera while still a boy and continued this practice throughout his schooling. In 1937 his burning ambition took him to New York City, where his rise as a professional photographer was meteoric.
Before he was twenty-one, Smith had placed hundreds of photographs in the major picture magazines of the time. Dramatic composition, a hard-edged brilliance, and a mastery of lighting were evident even in this early work. But the moment of true ground-breaking would occur during World War II. It was when Smith went ashore with the Marines at Saipan, Guam, and Iwo Jima that his work and his sense of moral responsibility came together. He wrote: "Each time I pressed the shutter release it was a shouted condemnation hurled with the hope that they might echo through the minds of men in the future-- causing them caution and remembrance and realization." Breaking from the concerns of the mass media, his personal priorities were born. Smith's war photographs earned him repeated and justified comparisons to Mathew Brady. His coverage of American prisoner-of-war camps helped convince the Japanese that their fears were exaggerated, and stopped the suicide of thousands of terrified citizens upon the advance of American troops. This would not be the last time that Smith's work would change as well as document history.
After the war, Smith became a staff photographer at Life magazine, where he created many of his most famous photographs. The essays "Country Doctor" and "Nurse Midwife" influenced an entire generation. Smith moved from mine villages in Great Britain to Albert Schweitzer in French Equatorial Africa to a sweeping study of Spanish village life. At a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan he created haunting images of hatred, fear, and bigotry, which beautifully counterpoint the humanity of his great Life0 essays. Smith also showed his skill at portraiture, shooting many of the luminaries of the time.
His frustrations with commercial publishing finally led to a split with Life magazine in 1954, a true case of "artistic differences." He devoted his remaining twenty-four years to independent projects. It was a period of intense personal suffering and poverty. During these years he pushed one project, "Pittsburgh," virtually to the breaking point and along the way created photography's greatest urban landscape.
His last great essay, "Minamata," depicted both the human suffering caused by mercury poisoning in a Japanese industrial port, and helped put an end to that pollution. A severe beating by factory thugs aggravated his already failing health and on October 15, 1978, he died. Over the span of forty driven years, Smith dreamed on an epic scale and his accomplishments were heroic. He once wrote: "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."
Here is the definitive work on Smith's life and work, containing his major photo-essays, the portrait work, and spanning his brilliant career from his days aboard an aircraft carrier, through the breadth of Pittsburgh, to the human suffering explicit in his last great essay in Minamata. All these images have been painstakingly reproduced to insure the greatest quality in testament to Smith's genius.
Moral passion and photographic truth were inseparable to Gene Smith. He pursued both and the measure of his greatness is that he compromised neither. His achievements were realized at no small cost to himself and those around him. In the accompanying biography, "The Wounded Angel," author Ben Maddow takes the measure of the man and looks unflinchingly at the muses and demons that drove W. Eugene Smith to the fulfillment of his dream of greatness. Maddow's biography is the first published in-depth portrayal of Gene Smith's life. It is a dramatic saga made all the more vivid by Maddow's commitment to the facts and his subject.
Illustrated biography by Ben Maddow
Afterword by John G. Morris
Let Truth Be The Prejudice documents the life and work of W. Eugene Smith, a man whose work expanded the range and depth of photography, bringing new aesthetic and moral power to the photo essay. Smith was born in 1918 in Wichita, Kansas, and raised according to traditional American values, believing in the nobility of America and the injustice of war. He began taking pictures with his mother's camera while still a boy and continued this practice throughout his schooling. In 1937 his burning ambition took him to New York City, where his rise as a professional photographer was meteoric.
Before he was twenty-one, Smith had placed hundreds of photographs in the major picture magazines of the time. Dramatic composition, a hard-edged brilliance, and a mastery of lighting were evident even in this early work. But the moment of true ground-breaking would occur during World War II. It was when Smith went ashore with the Marines at Saipan, Guam, and Iwo Jima that his work and his sense of moral responsibility came together. He wrote: "Each time I pressed the shutter release it was a shouted condemnation hurled with the hope that they might echo through the minds of men in the future-- causing them caution and remembrance and realization." Breaking from the concerns of the mass media, his personal priorities were born. Smith's war photographs earned him repeated and justified comparisons to Mathew Brady. His coverage of American prisoner-of-war camps helped convince the Japanese that their fears were exaggerated, and stopped the suicide of thousands of terrified citizens upon the advance of American troops. This would not be the last time that Smith's work would change as well as document history.
After the war, Smith became a staff photographer at Life magazine, where he created many of his most famous photographs. The essays "Country Doctor" and "Nurse Midwife" influenced an entire generation. Smith moved from mine villages in Great Britain to Albert Schweitzer in French Equatorial Africa to a sweeping study of Spanish village life. At a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan he created haunting images of hatred, fear, and bigotry, which beautifully counterpoint the humanity of his great Life0 essays. Smith also showed his skill at portraiture, shooting many of the luminaries of the time.
His frustrations with commercial publishing finally led to a split with Life magazine in 1954, a true case of "artistic differences." He devoted his remaining twenty-four years to independent projects. It was a period of intense personal suffering and poverty. During these years he pushed one project, "Pittsburgh," virtually to the breaking point and along the way created photography's greatest urban landscape.
His last great essay, "Minamata," depicted both the human suffering caused by mercury poisoning in a Japanese industrial port, and helped put an end to that pollution. A severe beating by factory thugs aggravated his already failing health and on October 15, 1978, he died. Over the span of forty driven years, Smith dreamed on an epic scale and his accomplishments were heroic. He once wrote: "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."
Here is the definitive work on Smith's life and work, containing his major photo-essays, the portrait work, and spanning his brilliant career from his days aboard an aircraft carrier, through the breadth of Pittsburgh, to the human suffering explicit in his last great essay in Minamata. All these images have been painstakingly reproduced to insure the greatest quality in testament to Smith's genius.
Moral passion and photographic truth were inseparable to Gene Smith. He pursued both and the measure of his greatness is that he compromised neither. His achievements were realized at no small cost to himself and those around him. In the accompanying biography, "The Wounded Angel," author Ben Maddow takes the measure of the man and looks unflinchingly at the muses and demons that drove W. Eugene Smith to the fulfillment of his dream of greatness. Maddow's biography is the first published in-depth portrayal of Gene Smith's life. It is a dramatic saga made all the more vivid by Maddow's commitment to the facts and his subject.
- GenresPhotography
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 31, 2018
Let Truth be the Prejudice is the title of the book that Gene Smith intended to publish as his way of making the world face up to the reality of “the greed, the stupidity, and the intolerances” that he witnessed and so lovingly documented in his photographs. Smith died before he could produce such a book himself; and given his compulsive quest for perfection he would likely have never completed such a task had he lived several lifetimes. Nevertheless, Let Truth be the Prejudice: W. Eugene Smith, His Life and Photographs does justice to his legacy. The biography by Ben Maddow that accompanies the photographs is much, much, more than a sketch. It’s an extensive and well researched portrait of a tortured soul. A strength of Maddow’s text, aside from being a probing and nuanced account, is the abundant quotations from Smith’s own writings. Smith’s compulsive behavior turns out to be a boon to the biographer: he kept everything, he was by any definition, a pack-rat, and this includes carbon copies of much of his correspondence.
I’ve now read three biographies of Smith: Gene Smith's Sink: A Wide-Angle View by Sam Stephenson, plus W. Eugene Smith and the Photographic Essay by Glenn Gardner Willumson; and all three are quite different and excellent. So even if you already have an acquaintance with Gene Smith, I can still heartily recommend this book. It will add to your understanding even if, like that giant of 20th century photojournalism, John Morris, observed in a letter to Gene, “Often I cannot understand you with my mind; but I feel I do understand you with my heart.” (p. 61)
I’ve now read three biographies of Smith: Gene Smith's Sink: A Wide-Angle View by Sam Stephenson, plus W. Eugene Smith and the Photographic Essay by Glenn Gardner Willumson; and all three are quite different and excellent. So even if you already have an acquaintance with Gene Smith, I can still heartily recommend this book. It will add to your understanding even if, like that giant of 20th century photojournalism, John Morris, observed in a letter to Gene, “Often I cannot understand you with my mind; but I feel I do understand you with my heart.” (p. 61)
October 21, 2025
Let Truth Be the Prejudice by Ben Maddow tells the story of W. Eugene Smith, one of the most influential photojournalists in the 20th century.
The book is as unique in its writing as it is in its content. In some places, the book is written in almost poetic style, while giving a deeply personal account of Smith’s life—complete with his own letters and thoughts.
It follows Smith from his early years to his death, covering it all—the successes, the struggles, the heartbreaks, the moments of glory, and everything in between.
Read the full review on my blog
The book is as unique in its writing as it is in its content. In some places, the book is written in almost poetic style, while giving a deeply personal account of Smith’s life—complete with his own letters and thoughts.
It follows Smith from his early years to his death, covering it all—the successes, the struggles, the heartbreaks, the moments of glory, and everything in between.
Read the full review on my blog
December 21, 2015
I picked up this oversized coffee table book expecting a bevy of full page prints of Smith's photography. there's little of that presentation and a biography takes up nearly 80 pages. this is helpful understanding his loves, hus passion for music and contentious relationship with commercially motivated employers. Smith was a Steinbeck of the camera seeking a poetic view of social realism to celebrate the noble, assault war and even improve lives as he did for the mercury -poisoned people of Minamata.
January 22, 2017
Uno de los mejores análisis que se han hecho acercar del trabajo de Eugene Smith.
January 22, 2017
Uno de los mejores análisis que se han hecho acercar del trabajo de Eugene Smith.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews