John G. Morris and the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund

This event is free for students with ID and Aperture Members at the $50 level and above.

To mark the thirty-fifth anniversary of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, John Godfrey Morris, legendary photo editor, journalist, and author, will speak about his thirty-nine years of friendship with Eugene Smith and the history of the Smith Fund.

Morris worked for Life magazine throughout World War II, and later for publications and agencies such as Ladies’ Home Journal, Magnum Photos, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and National Geographic. Now at age ninety-seven, Morris lives in Paris and has published the first book of his own photographs, Quelque part en France (2014). Following the talk, Morris will sign copies of this and his classic, Get the Picture: A Personal History of Photojournalism (2002).

Thirty-five years ago, Morris, Howard Chapnick, and Jim Hughes started the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund in honor of another legendary figure in the field, the humanistic photo essayist Eugene Smith. Each year the fund recognizes a photographer who has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to documenting the human condition in the spirit of Smith’s concerned photography and dedicated compassion. The fund awards an annual $30,000 grant to a photographer to complete a major photographic essay.

The thirty-fifth annual ceremony for the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grant in Humanistic Photography will be held at the School of Visual Arts Theatre the following evening, Wednesday, October 15.

Image: John Godfrey Morris by Patricia Trocmé

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the board and Members of Aperture Foundation.