Pfeffer ww2 photographers

an American photographer, born in Kansas. One of the reasons why he was desired, was his ability to light places. His ways of using flash was different from other photographers. Most photographers back in the WW2 era put the flashes on there cameras, but Smith used the flash off camera and used the natural light as well to make a photograph really pop and stand out from the rest. When he got to Japan and started working, he noticed how bad and horrible the war was. He captured the lives and the hostile environments in his photographs and was wondering why we where at war at all. In 1945 Smith got hit by a shell, which ended up wounding him pretty seriously, and took him a few years to recover. Smith was able to be creative even when there was an confinements of photo journalism. I think that’s what makes him so unique.

W. Eugene Smith covered the South Pacific during WW2. Smith said “The scene of demolition on Iwo Jima symbolizes the saga of battle that in years to come will take on the epic quality of Roncevaux, Agincourt and Gettysburg. Blown up into this column of smoke is a blockhouse and some stubborn Japs who would not leave their hiding place, although invited by the Marines to surrender quietly.” In (image 1) there are US militants in the foreground; they are blowing up a “Japanese Blockhouse in Iwo Jima,” (which is an island part of Japan).

What I find intriguing is that photograph is so simple yet has a lot to it. The baron land and the explosion really makes this feel “dead”. Smith shows four soldiers in the front, but there the only ones that are “living”.

Which really is one of the things that makes this photograph so strong; the meanings behind this photograph.