Regarded as one of the most influential photojournalists ever, his photographs were as nuanced and complex as the man himself. Having a complicated personal life and being just as complicated to work with, his continuous striving for perfection and excellence mixed with drugs, alcohol, and conflicts with editors at LIFE magazine make his life nearly as compelling as the photos he created.

"A photo is a small voice, at best, but sometimes - just sometimes - one photograph or a group of them can lure our senses into awareness. Much depends upon the viewer; in some, photographs can summon enough emotion to be a catalyst to thought."

Born in Wichita, Kansas in 1918, William Eugene Smith began shooting for two local newspapers at 15. In 1937, he left Notre Dame University, where a photography scholarship had been created for him, and moved to New York. After freelance work, he became a war correspondent, photographing the Pacific campaign for LIFE magazine in 1945. He was badly injured and spent two years recovering before returning to create landmark photo essays. Eight years at LIFE ended in clashes with editors, after which he joined Magnum in 1955. Later, he taught at the University of Arizona before his death at 59 in 1978. His archive and the W. Eugene Smith Fund continue his legacy. On questions of honesty in his work, he said, “I didn’t write the rules - why should I follow them?… The honesty lies in my - the photographer’s - ability to understand."

After leaving LIFE, Smith took on an assignment to photograph Pittsburgh. Struggling with grief, addiction, and family turmoil, he accepted what was supposed to be a short job worth about $15,000 today. Instead, he became consumed. By day he wandered the city, by night he studied maps and notes. His true intent was to use the essay “as a tool against LIFE.” Stefan Lorant, who arranged the job, said Smith “just went and fell in love with so many things… When he went to the Pittsburgh Screw and Bolt Factory, I thought he’d take one picture. Well, he spent a whole week or more.”

Pittsburgh was promoted as a city on the rise, but Smith found contradictions in race, wealth, and industry. He wrote, “One morning looking out of a window, I wondered what the hell I was doing in Pittsburgh. Mine was no love affair with this city, and I felt no crusade [...] to give me cause and desire.” His gear was stolen, costing him 500 images, but by the end he had shot over 11,000 photographs, later 17,000 after two return trips. He called the project both a “debacle” and “the finest set of photographs I have ever produced.”

Smith became known as a master of the photo essay. He immersed himself until people forgot he was there. A colleague recalled, “He would always be present. He would always be in the shadows… as if he were just a doorknob.” He pursued subjects day and night, structuring narratives with meticulous notes.

“In the building of a story, I begin with my own prejudices, mark them as prejudices, and start finding new thinking, the contradictions to my prejudices. What I am saying is that you cannot be objective until you try to be fair. You try to be honest and you try to be fair and maybe truth will come out.”

His breakthrough came in 1948 with Country Doctor, following Dr. Ernest Ceriani in rural Colorado. For 23 days Smith shadowed him, sometimes with no film in his camera to let the doctor adjust. “I made very few pictures at first. I mainly tried to learn what made the doctor tick,” he explained. The essay revealed the endless demands of small-town medicine and highlighted a national shortage of rural doctors.

In 1951 he published Spanish Village, documenting life under Franco. LIFE ran 16 images to contrast Spain’s poverty with America’s prosperity. Magnum later released 60 photographs under the title Village of Deleitosa in Western Spain, showing Smith’s true intent: that villagers valued their lives despite the lack of modernization.

That same year he created Nurse Midwife, following Maude Callen in South Carolina. One of only nine nurse midwives in the state, she faced skepticism due to her race. The county health director said, “If you have to take her, I can only ask you to join me in prayer for the people left here.” LIFE readers responded with donations nationwide to support her work.

Smith’s final LIFE essay documented Albert Schweitzer in West Africa. Disputes over a manipulated photo, and his lack of control over selection and layout, pushed him to resign. The University of Arizona later noted, “it was to be his last for Life whose refusal to give him a say had become unacceptable.”

Afterwards he joined Magnum and launched into the Pittsburgh project. In 1971 the retrospective Let Truth Be the Prejudice was held. Though perfectionism and conflict marked his life, they also cemented his place as one of the greatest photojournalists. His photographs still challenge us to ask how far we will push ourselves for art, and what sacrifices we are willing to make in pursuit of truth.