id:			155649
accession number:	1990.89
share license status:	Copyrighted
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1990.89
updated:		2024-03-26 02:00:10.454000

Calling for Help, Okinawa, 1945. W. Eugene Smith (American, 1918–1978). Gelatin silver print; image: 24 x 34 cm (9 7/16 x 13 3/8 in.); matted: 55.9 x 55.9 cm (22 x 22 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Edwin R. and Harriet Pelton Perkins Memorial Fund 1990.89

title:				Calling for Help, Okinawa
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1945
creation date earliest:		1945
creation date latest:		1945
current location:		
creditline:			Edwin R. and Harriet Pelton Perkins Memorial Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	America, 20th century
technique:	gelatin silver print
department:	Photography
collection:	PH - American 1900-1950
type:		Photograph
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* W. Eugene Smith (American, 1918–1978)  - artist
W. Eugene Smith American, 1918-1978

W. Eugene Smith (born in Wichita, Kansas) was a master photojournalist known for his many photo essays in Life magazine. After working as a part-time newspaper photographer while in high school, Smith studied briefly at the University of Notre Dame. He then moved to New York City in 1937, where his first job was with Newsweek. After a year at the magazine and a period of freelance work, he signed a contract with Life in 1939, but resigned two years later. His subsequent career as a war correspondent (1942-45) was interrupted after he was severely wounded by shell fire.
	Smith's first photograph after two years of convalescence, The Walk to Paradise Garden, became one of his most well known and was featured in the exhibition The Family of Man at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1955). From 1947-54 he was once more associated with Life, producing a number of major photographic essays: "Country Doctor" (1948), "Spanish Village" (1951), "Nurse Midwife" (1951), and "A Man of Mercy" (focusing on Dr. Albert Schweitzer, 1954). In 1954 he again resigned from Life after a disagreement over the handling of the Schweitzer essay.
	The following year Smith joined magnum Photos and undertook a major photographic study of the city of Pittsburgh, receiving two fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1956, 1957). In 1957 he also began work on a new project, a series of photographs taken from his studio window. Smith spent several years in Japan in the 1960s (traveling there initially to make photographs for Hitachi Limited) and returned in 1971 to work on the powerful and moving Minamata photo essay, which portrayed a small Japanese fishing village whose inhabitants were poisoned by industrial pollution (first published in Life and then as a book). Until his death in 1978, Smith continued to photograph, teach, and exhibit. M.M.
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measurements: Image: 24 x 34 cm (9 7/16 x 13 3/8 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 55.9 cm (22 x 22 in.)
state of the work:	
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support materials:


inscriptions:

	inscription:	Written in brown ink on recto of mount: "Calling [g in blue ink] for Help. Okinawa 4/19-45";  "W. Eugene Smith [signed] / for LIFE [in blue ink]"; in blue ink on verso: "NM33"; in pencil on verso: "P-57"
	translation:	
	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Notable Acquisitions
	opening date:   1991-06-07T04:00:00
	<i>Notable Acquisitions</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 7-September 15, 1991).

	title:		Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art
	opening date:   1996-11-24T05:00:00
	<i>Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* {'description': 'CMA, June 7 - September 15, 1991: "Notable Acquisitions," CMA Bulletin, 78 (June 1991), p. 103, repr.', 'opening_date': '1991-06-07T00:00:00'}

* {'description': 'CMA, November 20,1996 - February 2, 1997: "Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art."', 'opening_date': '1997-02-02T00:00:00'}

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PROVENANCE

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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Hinson, Tom E. "Notable Acquisitions." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 78, no. 3 (1991): 63-147.
	page number: 	Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 103
	url:		https://www.jstor.org/stable/25161319

	Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. <em>Catalogue of Photography</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
	page number: 	Reproduced: P. 324
	url:		

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IMAGES