Life of a Nurse-Midwife

Life Magazine has republished via the web, a remarkable photo essay by one of my favorite and inspirational photojournalists W. Eugene Smith.31_midwife1

Take a look!

In December 1951, LIFE published one of the most extraordinary photo essays ever to appear in the magazine. Across a dozen pages, and featuring more than 20 of the great W. Eugene Smith’ pictures, the story of a tireless South Carolina nurse and midwife named Maude Callen opened a window on a world that, surely, countless LIFE readers had never seen — and, perhaps, had never even imagined. Working in the rural South in the 1950s, in “an area of some 400 square miles veined with muddy roads,” as LIFE put it, Callen served as “doctor, dietician, psychologist, bail-goer and friend” to thousands of poor (most of them desperately poor) patients — only two percent of whom were white.

 

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  1. […] definitely talk about some of my favorite journalists. Some photo, some written. We’ll talk about the art and the process, as well as the industry […]

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