[beaversmom]

Click picture at LINK to move ahead in the photo essay at Time.

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.

IMGUR link to pics

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:

W. Eugene Smith at Art Blart

[Auntie Mame]

Simply exquisite.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Love his photographs. The ones of the mercury-in-the-fish causing poisoning from Japan are heart-rending.

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...

[The Great RJ]

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

[fella]

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.

[wideminded]

I wonder why they had to take a vehicle on rails to go fishing and how they knew a train wasn't coming.

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.

[Covenantor]

His iconic photograph of his own children titled "A Walk to Paradise Garden" was taken after his war coverage.

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.

[gattaca]

These are wonderful pictures.

[PlateOfShrimp]

Thank you so much!

I admit, I had never heard of this guy - his work is breathtaking.

The things you learn on FR!

[Prospero]

One of the later images in the Time slideshow features the Doctor and his coffee pot; an iconic image I can remember being published decade after decade throughout my entire lifetime.