Smith graduated from the Wichita North High School in 1936. His mother used her Catholic church connections to enable Smith to obtain a photography scholarship which helped to fund his tuition at Notre Dame University, but at the age of 18 he abruptly quit university. Smith moved to New York City and by 1938 he had begun to work for "Newsweek." He became known there for his incessant perfectionism and thorny personality and eventually Smith was fired from "Newsweek". He later explained that "Newsweek" wanted him to work with larger format negatives, but he refused to abandon the 35mm Contax camera he preferred to work with. Smith began to work for "Life" magazine in 1939, quickly building a strong relationship with then picture editor Wilson Hicks.