Smith, W Eugene

Smith, W(illiam) Eugene

(born Dec. 20, 1918, Wichita, Kan., U.S.—died Oct. 15, 1978, Tucson, Ariz.) U.S. photojournalist. He worked as a photographer for local papers then went to New York City and worked for several magazines. In 1943–44, as a war correspondent for Life magazine, he covered many of the important battles of the Pacific theatre. He produced a number of photoessays for Life, such as Spanish Village (1951), a study of villagers' daily struggle to draw life from exhausted soil. His most famous picture, The Walk to Paradise Garden (1947), showing his own children entering a forest clearing, concluded the landmark photographic exhibition The Family of Man.