Albert Schweitzer - the Nobel Prize Peace Laureate, theologian, musician and "medical missionary" who spent decades in West Africa, was one of the best-known figures of the 20th century. For some, it was a European well intentioned but ultimately patronizing engaged in illuminating the "black continent" of Africa; for others he was a man whose tireless work with men, women and children suffering from leprosy, malaria, elephantiasis, whooping cough, sexually transmitted diseases and other countless vile diseases elevated him to something close to holiness.
The reality of life and work, meanwhile Schweitzer - as it almost always is in such cases - was more complicated and more deeply fascinating than any of those quite simplistic estimates in man.
In November 1954, LIFE magazine published an article about Schweitzer, "A man of mercy", with photographs made by the great W. Eugene Smith. Here, LIFE.com returns to publish photos of Schweitzer Smith, as a reminder of the stature of the man - and a celebration of singular vision of a photographer.
In this issue, life wrote:
"Nobody knows me", Albert Schweitzer has sad, "who does not know me in Africa." In Norway last week, where he had come to recognize a Nobel Peace Prize, the crowds jammed the streets to encourage a great figure of our time. As they encouraged were convinced that they knew the good: is the humanitarian, warm and blessed. He had become a man of brilliant success as a preacher, writer, and musician to bury himself as a medical missionary in Africa.
All this was true - but fans that have followed Dr. Schweizter French Equatorial Africa [specifically, Gabon - Ed.] meets a different man. There, in the midst of primitive conditions, Saint of Europe is forced to become a remote distance, leading man who governs his hospital with patriarchal authority. For those seeking the gentle philosopher of the legend, has a short answer: "We are too busy fighting pain". Then it turns back to work that make up the African world of Albert Schweitzer and suffering."
The story behind the most enduring image of the whole photo essay in life, while both, illustrates something quite elementary is not Schweitzer, but (characteristic) and the prickly, occasionally bombastic main photographer who made the picture, W. Eugene Smith. Photography - the first in this gallery - is beautiful and says: here is the Dr. Schweitzer, deep in Africa, overseeing the construction of a hospital. It is a portrait that captures so many aspects of the man in one frame: dedication, power of his personality, his generosity, his "otherness" and at the same time the righteousness of his presence in a land thousands of miles since its birth.
There really is a problem with this portrait: not true. Or rather, what truth contains only survives to the present day because Smith dramatically manipulated photo, combining elements of two separate negatives to impart the story that was dead-set on transport in a single image. The silhouette saw handle and the human hand on the bottom right of the frame were not part of the larger image when Smith did; on the other hand, combines elements of two different images to create a third, classic photo of a man literally on a mission. (A story says the sierra and the hand is added to cover a blurred spot in the broader picture; other familiar with the work of Smith argue that simply want to add a new chart element — and another layer of quiet drama - all.)
That this kind of manipulation contravened guidelines photo-report of life little mattered then - Smith, after all, developed and printed his own work, refusing to allow others to handle your film, your negative, nothing at all - and, in all honesty, is important even less now. The fact of the matter is that when that life sent him to Africa to work of Schweitzer and his world, Smith was already a legend. He had made some of the most memorable photographs that emerge from World War II (and wounded while in the Pacific). It had promoted the form of photo-essay for life with historical work as a "country doctor" (1948) and "nurse midwife" (1951). It was thorny, hard, tireless and routinely produced work that many photographers would give her right eye that made.
Smith type occupies vainly committed with that one, iconic Schweitzer photography can be frowned upon today. Any contemporary photojournalist who admitted to such behavior would probably be criticise their peers, as well as the public in general.
W the. Eugene Smith, on the other hand, has largely escaped such censorship for one reason and one reason: was W. Eugene Smith, and for better or worse, when it comes to beauty - and even, to some extent, when it comes to ethics - genius always has played for and judged by a different set of rules that govern the rest of us.
-Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com
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