From Maude Callen, Nurse-Midwife (in LIFE) 1951 One last note about the W. Eugene Smith exhibit. I am not a particularly nostalgic person. I don’t believe that the past was better than the present, in fact in most cases it seems to have been remarkably worse. For a family like my mother’s, one that came up black and poor in the Deep South, there is very little to look back on with nostalgia. When I think about my life today — the opportunities I’ve had, the things I’ve seen, the places I’ve been, the way I live now — I am filled with relief and gratitude at the difference for the way things were for those who came before me. But when I saw Smith’s photographs of Maude Callen, I nearly cried. Callen looks a lot like my grandmother, and the sight of this lovely woman, doing everything that needed to be done without complaint and under dreadful circumstances — well, I lost it a little bit. There aren’t many women who bring up those memories for me in cold old Prussia. And to my surprise, a little bit of the past was able to give me a lot of catharsis. Copyright W. Eugene Smith

From Maude Callen, Nurse-Midwife (in LIFE) 1951

One last note about the W. Eugene Smith exhibit. I am not a particularly nostalgic person. I don’t believe that the past was better than the present, in fact in most cases it seems to have been remarkably worse.

For a family like my mother’s, one that came up black and poor in the Deep South, there is very little to look back on with nostalgia. When I think about my life today — the opportunities I’ve had, the things I’ve seen, the places I’ve been, the way I live now — I am filled with relief and gratitude at the difference for the way things were for those who came before me.

But when I saw Smith’s photographs of Maude Callen, I nearly cried. Callen looks a lot like my grandmother, and the sight of this lovely woman, doing everything that needed to be done without complaint and under dreadful circumstances — well, I lost it a little bit. There aren’t many women who bring up those memories for me in cold old Prussia. And to my surprise, a little bit of the past was able to give me a lot of catharsis.

Copyright W. Eugene Smith