Posted on 08/02/2015 12:34:04 AM PDT by beaversmom
For his groundbreaking 1948 LIFE magazine photo essay, Country Doctor seen here, in its entirety, followed by several unpublished photographs from the shoot photographer W. Eugene Smith spent 23 days in Kremmling, Colo., chronicling the day-to-day challenges faced by an indefatigable general practitioner named Dr. Ernest Ceriani.
Six decades later, Smiths images from those three weeks remain as fresh as they were the moment he took them, and as revelatory as they surely felt to millions of LIFEs readers as they encountered Dr. Ceriani, his patients and his fellow tough, uncompromising Coloradans.
Born on a sheep ranch in Wyoming, Dr. Ceriani attended Chicagos Loyola School of Medicine but opted not to pursue a medical career in the big city. In 1946, after a stint in the Navy, he was recruited by the hospital in Kremmling, and he and wife Bernetha, who was born in Colorado, settled into the rural town. Dr. Ceriani was the sole physician for an area of about 400 square miles, inhabited by some 2,000 people.
Eugene Smiths at-times almost unsettlingly intimate pictures illustrate in poignant detail the challenges faced by a modest, tireless rural physician and gradually reveal the inner workings and the outer trappings of what is clearly a uniquely rewarding life.
Country Doctor was an instant classic when first published, establishing Smith as a master of the uniquely commanding young art form of the photo essay, and solidifying his stature as one of the most passionate and influential photojournalists of the 20th century. In 1979, the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund was founded to support those working in the profoundly humanistic style of photography to which Smith dedicated his life and his art.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Dr. Ernest Ceriani makes a house call on foot, Kremmling, Colo., 1948.
Dr. Ceriani was the sole physician for an area of about 400 square miles...
Also, see this link (below) on a related thread at IMGUR for vertical viewing of most of the pictures.
For more information about the photojournalist:
Wiki link for W. Eugene Smith/Photojournalist
William Eugene Smith (December 30, 1918 October 15, 1978), was an American photojournalist, renowned for the dedication he devoted to his projects and his uncompromising professional and ethical standards. Smith developed the photo essay into a sophisticated visual form. His most famous studies included brutally vivid World War II photographs, the clinic of Dr Schweitzer in French Equatorial Africa, the city of Pittsburgh, the dedication of an American country doctor and a nurse midwife, and the pollution which damaged the health of the residents of Minamata in Japan.
Also, see this link:
W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund link
W. Eugene Smith learned the hard way that photography could be too easy, a matter of making expert images of interesting subjects. He set himself to learn the truth about himself as well as his subjects. In the process, he produced a series of photographic essays, for LIFE and other publications, whose passionate involvement set a standard for what photography can be. Gene Smith was a loner, a driving and driven man, who bucked the system of which he was a part. Some say he sacrificed his career, and himself, on an altar of self-destructive idealism. When he died at the age of 59 in 1978, he had $18 in the bank. But his name had become synonymous with integrity. His work was his memorial.
Some more of his work sampled here:
Simply exquisite.
Comments from website:
Tomoko Uemura being bathed by her mother, taken by W. Eugene Smith for Life magazine in 1971. On the Japanese Island of Kyushu, an outwardly healthy mother bathes her fetal-poisoned 16 year old daughter, crippled and blind since birth due to environmental industrial mercury poisoning in the local Minamata, Japan, water supply. This may be the first environmental pollution photojournalism.
William Eugene Smith, who was beaten by goons hired by the offending chemical company, received the Robert Capa Gold Medal for photography requiring exceptional courage and enterprise. Absolutely moving picture...
Thanks for posting that story and pic.
My father was a country doctor in a small town in South Dakota and these photos bring back a lot of memories. Dad still made house calls until the 1970s and delivered babies at home until the mid 1950s
Very nice. Thanks for sharing. :)
When I first saw these photos about a week ago, I had a lovely dream later that morning where I went back into time with my mom and little girl. I wasn’t around in the 40s and 50s, but I’d love to back for a visit. :)
YW. Many other wonderful pics by Smith, but I must sleep. Thank YOU for bringing back memories.
Me, too.
I’ll have to look for some more tomorrow.
So many things to say about that photo-essay.
1. Nurses wore white uniforms
2. Doctors smoked, in the office
3. Some cars had backseats that folded down and opened into
the trunk to make beds.
4. Men wore hats to protect their heads from the sun
5. Medicine bags had a little of everything. And doctors
could compound medicine on the spot.
” Doctors smoked, in the office..”
My father smoked in the hospital when making rounds, walking the hallways, in patient rooms.
It was a great time to be alive.
My daughter was born in 1982 around 3 AM, after what the Dr. thought was false labor he lit up a cigarette and I asked for one since I rushed over there without much of anything else. We sat smoking and about 10 minutes later the wife’s water broke. Things still weren’t going right and my daughter was delivered C section later.
Some of the pictures look like Hollywood movie still shots. What a life this man must have had.
I remember looking at and discussing the Minimata photos with a relative who was a physician.
If people debate whether photographers are artists, it's not even a close call with this guy.
Smith said it restored his spirit to observe the joyful glee of his children at their discovery of the small things in their lives.
Captures the feeling of pure magic.
These are wonderful pictures.
That is wonderful.
Thank you so much!
I admit, I had never heard of this guy - his work is breathtaking.
The things you learn on FR!
From, http://time.com/37534/into-the-light-w-eugene-smiths-walk-to-paradise-garden/
...He followed his children. He watched, and waited. And then, right in front of him, he saw it unfold. Pat saw something in the clearing, he grasped Juanita by the hand and they hurried forward. While I followed my children into the undergrowth and the group of taller treeshow they were delighted at every little discovery!and observed them, I suddenly realized that at this moment, in spite of everything, in spite of all the wars and all I had gone through that day, I wanted to sing a sonnet to life and to the courage to go on living it. . . .
This 1946 photograph waa taken before I was born yet I saw repeatedly in my early childhood as well as in later years. It, to this day retains the same wonder as when I first saw it.
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