Rodney Smith studied photography at Yale under Walker Evans before receiving a fellowship, which allowed him to travel to Jerusalem. After publishing a book compiled of images from this journey called “The Land of Light,” Smith was asked to lecture at many prestigious universities, all of which he declined. Instead, Smith found himself “riding slow trains in India, bicycling through the Camarque, strolling the streets of Paris.” Eventually, Smith returned to Yale to earn a degree in Divinity (of all things).
“Today, Rodney is a celebrated photographer with a wonderful breadth of subject matter and feeling. He’s had dozens of shows. Won 75 awards. Is collected by Carnegies, Whitneys and Rockefellars, plus, scads of orchestra and museum patrons and a few enlightened rock stars…His work is represented in every important gallery across the globe…”
There is great mystery about Rodney Smith that one could argue he reveals-and at the same time conceals-in his photography. I enjoy following his hatted friend(s) through woods, fields, over fences and up tall trees-though-I have no idea what he’s up to and how he got there. The narrative and escapist qualities of his work along with the repetition of a man and his hat lead me to believe that this obscure figure is how Smith perceives himself. Or the man he wishes he could be.
I don’t know how I didn’t come across Smith’s work earlier. The parallels that I enjoy drawing between my work and Smith’s is that there is a considerable amount of mystery in our images that both reveal and conceal our intentions or concept not only as photographers and artists, but as who we are mentally and emotionally. Unfortunately, it would’ve been more helpful earlier in the semester to view his work, as I was heavily considering how to vary my own while using the same subject matter repeatedly. Though, fortunately, I am still inspired by his work and can apply to my own in other areas such as composition, lighting, and posing.
I have not mentioned the fashion-esque aspects of Smith’s work; at first fashion was something I was inclined to incorporate into my images, but over time that slowly started to dissolve. Having not considered it in a while, I decided that that wasn’t something I wanted to include in my images. However, I’ve now realized that it is part of my style and I do it somewhat subconsciously. Smith’s work seems much the same. Looking at his work that follows around the man with the hat next to his fashion photography, I can easily observe similarities between the two in much of the same areas as listed above. And, at points, these two bodies of work appear to slip into each other: a clever facet of Smith’s portfolio.
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