Overview

William Eugene Smith (December 20, 1918, Wichita, Kansas - October 15, 1978, Tucson, Arizona) was an American photojournalist known for his refusal to compromise professional standards and his brutally vivid World War II photographs. His most famous photographs documented the effects of methyl mercury poisoning at Minamata Japan.

Toxicological perspective

Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath is a renowned photograph taken by famed American photojournalist W. Eugene Smith in 1971. Many commentators regard Tomoko as Smith's greatest work. The black and white photo depicts a mother cradling her severely deformed, naked daughter in a traditional Japanese bathing chamber. The mother, Ryoko Uemura, agreed to deliberately pose the startlingly intimate photograph with Smith to illustrate the terrible effects of Minamata disease (a type of mercury poisoning) on the body and mind of her daughter Tomoko. Upon publication the photo became world famous, significantly raising the international profile of Minamata disease and the struggle of the victims for recognition and compensation. At the wishes of Tomoko Uemura's family, the photograph was withdrawn from further publication in 1997, 20 years after Tomoko's death.

Biography

References

W. Eugene Smith = photo seminars