We Who Are Gathered Here

There Are Worlds Of Experience Beyond The World Of The Aggressive Man, Beyond History, And Beyond Science. The Moods And Qualities Of Nature And The Revelations Of Great Art Are Equally Difficult To Define; We Can Grasp Them Only In The Depths Of Our Perceptive Spirit.

Let Us Leave A Splendid Legacy For Our Children...let Us Turn To Them And Say, This You Inherit: Guard It Well, For It Is Far More Precious Than Money...and Once Destroyed, Nature's Beauty Cannot Be Repurchased At Any Price.

In My Mind's Eye, I Visualize How A Particular... Sight And Feeling Will Appear On A Print. If It Excites Me, There Is A Good Chance It Will Make A Good Photograph. It Is An Intuitive Sense, An Ability That Comes From A Lot Of Practice.

There Are No Rules For Good Photographs, There Are Only Good Photographs.

The Dismal Half-baked Images Of The Average "reportage" And "documentary" Photography Are Self Dammning... The Slick Manner, The Slightly Obscure Significance, The Esoteric Fear Of Simple Beauty For Its Own Sake - I Am Deeply Concerned With These Manifestations Of Decay. Gene Smith's Work Validates My Most Vigorous Convictions That If The Documentary Photographs Is To Be Truly Effective It Must Contain Elements Of Art, Intensity, Fine Craft And Spirituality. All These His Work Contains And We May Turn To His Work With Gratitude, Appreciation And Great Respect.