Great Black and White Photographers Part 2

   Willam Smith was born in Wichita Kansas in December 1918. He went to Wichita North High school and graduated in 1936. Soon after he took a job for two local newspapers. Later he eventually moved to new york to work for Newsweek. He was fired because he refused to use a medium format camera then he started working for life magazine in 1939. While Working for life he was in the front lines of the pacific war photographing the island hopping offense against japan. He photographed a lot of prisoners of war and showed intensity of the war. He was hit by motor fire and after recovering he continued  working with life magazine. In the 1950s he went to England to photograph general election and in 1965 he began to photograph he took photographers and recording jazz musicians playing a Manhattan loft. Smith was in japan photographing the effects on the minamata disease and he was attacked by chisso company employees and lost vision in one eye and had to stop working for a year. He died in 1978 october 15 form a stroke, and was cremated and buried in crum elbow rural cemetery.