"“Photography is a small voice, at best, but sometimes – just sometimes – one photograph or a group of them can lure our senses into awareness. Much depends upon the viewer; in some, photographs can summon enough emotion to be a catalyst to thought.” So wrote W. Eugene Smith in 1974. A master of twentieth-century photojournalism, Smith was obsessive in the pursuit of his vision. This obsession is perhaps most evident in his long term project documenting the deadly effects of industrial mercury pollution in Minamata. Smith saw the work as a “warning to the world” and ultimately put his life on the line to give a voice to the victims."
