Papaya seller

During this tune (from 1940 till the end of the war) did you have any contact with any other photographers that proved to have an influence on your work?
I was not up to my ears in photography. I did some photography when I was with Minicam, but not very much and not very well. It was a time of considerable frustration and "duty work". "Duty work" is work you do because someone else pays you to do it. When it comes to "duty work", I can become dreary - my work is dreary and my product is dreary. Occasionally something will happen to spring me out of the "duty work" and then I come to life and the things that are generated are lovely and it becomes a more beautiful experience to be alive. You could say my life operates in those two ways - from the peaks of delight to the valleys of "duty work".
Henry Holmes Smith

Dialogue with Photography, Paul Hill & Thomas Cooper