Gary Mark Smith
Encyclopedia
Gary Mark Smith is an American
street
photographer. Smith is noted for his empathetic and literal style of photography captured in extremely hazardous environments.
, Smith took his first serious photographs growing up on his family farm outside Kutztown
.
In high school he began photographing street life in Washington Square in nearby New York City.
In 1984 he earned a BS in journalism from the University of Kansas
at Lawrence
. In 1996 he earned a Master of Arts degree, the product of a full teaching fellowship provided by Purdue University
at West Lafayette, Indiana
.
Cold War
Several expeditions to the Cold War
inspired guerrilla wars in El Salvador
and Guatemala
, and Nicaragua - moonlighting as a journalist for the University Daily Kansan
newspaper and selling combat photography he made on the side as a freelance photographer to the Associated Press
, United Press International
and other agencies. His accounting of the Streets of Cold War Hot Spots garnered Smith a William Randolph Hearst
Award nomination and in December 1991 American Photo magazine named Smith an American Photo Career Photographer in that publication’s first ever honors competition.
Molten Memoirs
In September 1997 Smith gained access to the 'death zone' of Salem, Montserrat
in the Lesser Antilles
in the Caribbean
, becoming one of the 200 famous volcano holdouts there who refused to leave until a near-fatal close call eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano on September 22, 1997 finally forced the holdouts to flee. In February 1999 Smith released his first global street photography book, a well-received journal (Molten Memoirs: Essays, Rumors Field Notes and Photographs from the Edge of Fury) about his experience. In November 2000 Smith was honored for his work in Montserrat as an American Photo magazine champion for the second time, as a winner of the “International Reader’s Competition”.
In July 2009 a portfolio of 45 photographs from Holdout Streets of the Montserrat Volcano Disaster was accessioned into the permanent collection of the Montserrat National Trust.
Tora Bora: An American Global Street Photographer’s Post 9-11 View of the Streets of the Afghanistan/Pakistan Tribal Belt at the Time of Tora Bora.
Smith’s Streets of the Post-9/11 World project including work from: Ground Zero
in New York City; the Streets under the air war adjacent to the Battle of Tora Bora
; the streets of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border refugee camps; the streets of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Pakistan
at Peshawar
; beyond the Khyber Pass (Mohmand and Khyber Agencies); and to the everyday post-9/11 terror war streets of Las Vegas, Nevada, Paris, France and Lawrence, Kansas
, U.S.A., his hometown and the only city in North America (Bleeding Kansas
) established during a terror war (John Brown
; William Quantrill
), resulted in his third global street photography book White With Foam: Essays, Rumors, Field Notes and Photographs from the Edge of World War III was published online and in June 2009 the journal was released as a Kindle Edition.
Katrina
On September 1, 2005 Smith was sent by the American Red Cross
to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
and the flood of New Orleans, Louisiana
, becoming a member of the Red Cross first strike team, helping run undermanned rescue shelters in southern Louisiana on the outskirts of the Flood of New Orleans. During his service he photographed the Flood of New Orleans while on a cat rescue mission afloat down Canal Street
and in addition photographed the extreme hurricane surge damage of nearly the entire Mississippi
Gulf Coast Highway 90.
In 2009 eight of the images have been accessioned into the permanent art collection at the New Orleans Museum of Art
(NOMA).
Sleeping in the City:Global Street Photography from Inside the Wire.
Although called the godfather of citizen journalism
for his innovative but risky historical access street photography technique, Smith has furthermore emerged among contemporary street photographers as the pioneer who advanced street photography to a global level. A lifetime mission documenting the streets of the world through his artwork has journeyed Smith to the streets of more than 60 countries on six continents. His photographs from these “everyday global café streets” (thematic and typically lime-lighting the fashion, advertising, and particular place-defining urban elements of a location adorned with the serendipity of the passing local throng) have been included in private art collections worldwide and many of the images have been accessed into important museum collections in North America
, South America
, and Europe
.
1990- photographed Iron Curtain including West Germany
, East Germany, Poland
, Czechoslovakia
, Yugoslavia
, Hungary
, Greece
, Italy
, Switzerland
, France
, Belgium
, and the Netherlands
leading up to European and German Reunification
, including celebrations in Prague
and on October 3, 1990 in Köln (Cologne), Germany.
1991- Named one of four winners of American Photo magazine Photographers Career Competition.
1991- photographed the streets of the collapse of the Soviet Union
, it dissolved.
1996- was asked by Lawrence gallery (Kellas Gallery) mate and neighbor William S. Burroughs
to be a contributor at an art exhibition opening at Spencer Art Museum at the University of Kansas in celebration of the collaboration between Burroughs and Smith’s boyhood friend Keith Haring
from Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
2000- accepted a grant from the Traver Foundation to publish his second global street photography book, Searching for Washington Square, a retrospective sampling of his early work photographing the streets of 50 countries in the first 15 years of his career between 1982 and 1996.
2000- named a winner of the American Photo International Reader's Competition.
2000- editors at Black & White Online magazine (New York) named Smith’s www.streetphoto.com art gallery website as one of the Top Ten Black & White Photography Websites Online.
2006- four of Smith’s images (from Greece, Amsterdam, Montserrat and Las Vegas) were selected by photography critic Mason Resnick for inclusion in the four-month international street photography Crosswalks Exhibition at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art
(OKCMOA). Later, after the exhibition closed, the museum accessioned two of Smith’s digital street photographs (from Las Vegas and Amsterdam) into its permanent art collection.
2006- Two photographs from the Streets of the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina series became part of the Katrina Exposed Exhibition (June–September) at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA): Devastatingly Beautiful and Ronald McDonald Mississippi Surge-Scape.
2008- established 30-year traveling retrospective of his global street photography from 64 countries on six continents called Sleeping in the City: Dreamscapes and Other Episodes from Inside the Wire.
2009- eight photographs from Smith's 2007 Streets of the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were accepted into the permanent collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), as part of the hurricane memorial portfolio.
2009- a portfolio of 45 of Smith's 1997–1999 Holdout Streets of the Montserrat Volcano Disaster was accepted into the permanent collection of the Montserrat National Trust.
He was knocked unconscious in secondary lightning strikes twice as a teenager, once when he was 15 and again at 19, resulting in later incorporation of the fury of nature into his global street photography method.
In 1976 Smith was abruptly disabled during a knee operation when insufficient room for swelling was left in the cast that was applied and his nerve was crushed from three inches above the knee all the way down through his left foot. This rendered him either in agonizing pain and/or existing under the influence of powerful painkillers for the rest of his life.
In 1978 while hitchhiking across the United States, Smith picked up a newspaper one morning at a truck stop outside Scottsbluff, Nebraska
and was inspired by an article he read promising cheaper international airfares under the new Airline Deregulation Act
. That development, when blended with an inexplicable wanderlust, compelled him to become a fine art global street photographer instead of the other less exciting (more painful and less pain distracting) things left available to him.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
street
Street photography
Street photography is a type of documentary photography that features subjects in candid situations within public places such as streets, parks, beaches, malls, political conventions and other settings....
photographer. Smith is noted for his empathetic and literal style of photography captured in extremely hazardous environments.
Early life and education
Born in Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaBethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem is a city in Lehigh and Northampton Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 74,982, making it the seventh largest city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie,...
, Smith took his first serious photographs growing up on his family farm outside Kutztown
Kutztown, Pennsylvania
Kutztown is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, southwest of Allentown and northeast of Reading. As of the 2000 census, the borough has a total population of 5,067. It is the site of Kutztown University.- History :...
.
In high school he began photographing street life in Washington Square in nearby New York City.
In 1984 he earned a BS in journalism from the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
at Lawrence
Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...
. In 1996 he earned a Master of Arts degree, the product of a full teaching fellowship provided by Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
at West Lafayette, Indiana
West Lafayette, Indiana
As of the census of 2010, there were 29,596 people, 12,591 households, and 3,588 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,381.1 people per square mile . The racial makeup of the city was 74.3% White, 17.3% Asian, 2.7% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.03% Pacific...
.
Career
Between 1982 and 2005 Smith became recognized as an innovative global street photographer and distinguished himself in the field along the way by blurring the line between journalism (documentary) and fine art by gaining access and witness to the danger and drama of history for use as visual allure and as an intellectually stimulating supporting character in his work. His most notorious projects included:Cold War
Several expeditions to the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
inspired guerrilla wars in El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
and Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, and Nicaragua - moonlighting as a journalist for the University Daily Kansan
University Daily Kansan
The University Daily Kansan is an editorially and financially independent student newspaper serving the University of Kansas. It was founded in 1904....
newspaper and selling combat photography he made on the side as a freelance photographer to the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
and other agencies. His accounting of the Streets of Cold War Hot Spots garnered Smith a William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
Award nomination and in December 1991 American Photo magazine named Smith an American Photo Career Photographer in that publication’s first ever honors competition.
Molten Memoirs
In September 1997 Smith gained access to the 'death zone' of Salem, Montserrat
Montserrat
Montserrat is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately long and wide, giving of coastline...
in the Lesser Antilles
Lesser Antilles
The Lesser Antilles are a long, partly volcanic island arc in the Western Hemisphere. Most of its islands form the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, with the remainder located in the southern Caribbean just north of South America...
in the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, becoming one of the 200 famous volcano holdouts there who refused to leave until a near-fatal close call eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano on September 22, 1997 finally forced the holdouts to flee. In February 1999 Smith released his first global street photography book, a well-received journal (Molten Memoirs: Essays, Rumors Field Notes and Photographs from the Edge of Fury) about his experience. In November 2000 Smith was honored for his work in Montserrat as an American Photo magazine champion for the second time, as a winner of the “International Reader’s Competition”.
In July 2009 a portfolio of 45 photographs from Holdout Streets of the Montserrat Volcano Disaster was accessioned into the permanent collection of the Montserrat National Trust.
Tora Bora: An American Global Street Photographer’s Post 9-11 View of the Streets of the Afghanistan/Pakistan Tribal Belt at the Time of Tora Bora.
Smith’s Streets of the Post-9/11 World project including work from: Ground Zero
World Trade Center site
The World Trade Center site , also known as "Ground Zero" after the September 11 attacks, sits on in Lower Manhattan in New York City...
in New York City; the Streets under the air war adjacent to the Battle of Tora Bora
Battle of Tora Bora
The Battle of Tora Bora was a military engagement that took place in Afghanistan in December 2001, during the opening stages of the war in that country launched following the 9/11 attacks on the United States. The U.S...
; the streets of the Afghanistan/Pakistan border refugee camps; the streets of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
at Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....
; beyond the Khyber Pass (Mohmand and Khyber Agencies); and to the everyday post-9/11 terror war streets of Las Vegas, Nevada, Paris, France and Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
Lawrence is the sixth largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Douglas County...
, U.S.A., his hometown and the only city in North America (Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858...
) established during a terror war (John Brown
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
; William Quantrill
William Quantrill
William Clarke Quantrill was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. After leading a Confederate bushwhacker unit along the Missouri-Kansas border in the early 1860s, which included the infamous raid and sacking of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863, Quantrill eventually ended up in...
), resulted in his third global street photography book White With Foam: Essays, Rumors, Field Notes and Photographs from the Edge of World War III was published online and in June 2009 the journal was released as a Kindle Edition.
Katrina
On September 1, 2005 Smith was sent by the American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
and the flood of New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, becoming a member of the Red Cross first strike team, helping run undermanned rescue shelters in southern Louisiana on the outskirts of the Flood of New Orleans. During his service he photographed the Flood of New Orleans while on a cat rescue mission afloat down Canal Street
Canal Street, New Orleans
Canal Street is a major thoroughfare in the city of New Orleans. Forming the upriver boundary of the city's oldest neighborhood, the French Quarter , it acted as the dividing line between the older French/Spanish Colonial-era city and the newer American Sector, today's Central Business District.The...
and in addition photographed the extreme hurricane surge damage of nearly the entire Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
Gulf Coast Highway 90.
In 2009 eight of the images have been accessioned into the permanent art collection at the New Orleans Museum of Art
New Orleans Museum of Art
The New Orleans Museum of Art is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the "Canal Street - City Park" streetcar line...
(NOMA).
Sleeping in the City:Global Street Photography from Inside the Wire.
Although called the godfather of citizen journalism
Citizen journalism
Citizen journalism is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information...
for his innovative but risky historical access street photography technique, Smith has furthermore emerged among contemporary street photographers as the pioneer who advanced street photography to a global level. A lifetime mission documenting the streets of the world through his artwork has journeyed Smith to the streets of more than 60 countries on six continents. His photographs from these “everyday global café streets” (thematic and typically lime-lighting the fashion, advertising, and particular place-defining urban elements of a location adorned with the serendipity of the passing local throng) have been included in private art collections worldwide and many of the images have been accessed into important museum collections in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
A timeline of notable Smith projects and honors
1982- began photographing the Cold War Hot Spots in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.1990- photographed Iron Curtain including West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, East Germany, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
leading up to European and German Reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
, including celebrations in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
and on October 3, 1990 in Köln (Cologne), Germany.
1991- Named one of four winners of American Photo magazine Photographers Career Competition.
1991- photographed the streets of the collapse of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, it dissolved.
1996- was asked by Lawrence gallery (Kellas Gallery) mate and neighbor William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
to be a contributor at an art exhibition opening at Spencer Art Museum at the University of Kansas in celebration of the collaboration between Burroughs and Smith’s boyhood friend Keith Haring
Keith Haring
Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...
from Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
2000- accepted a grant from the Traver Foundation to publish his second global street photography book, Searching for Washington Square, a retrospective sampling of his early work photographing the streets of 50 countries in the first 15 years of his career between 1982 and 1996.
2000- named a winner of the American Photo International Reader's Competition.
2000- editors at Black & White Online magazine (New York) named Smith’s www.streetphoto.com art gallery website as one of the Top Ten Black & White Photography Websites Online.
2006- four of Smith’s images (from Greece, Amsterdam, Montserrat and Las Vegas) were selected by photography critic Mason Resnick for inclusion in the four-month international street photography Crosswalks Exhibition at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art
Oklahoma City Museum of Art
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is a museum located in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. The museum features visiting exhibits; original selections from its own collection; a theater showing a variety of foreign, independent, and classic films each week;...
(OKCMOA). Later, after the exhibition closed, the museum accessioned two of Smith’s digital street photographs (from Las Vegas and Amsterdam) into its permanent art collection.
2006- Two photographs from the Streets of the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina series became part of the Katrina Exposed Exhibition (June–September) at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA): Devastatingly Beautiful and Ronald McDonald Mississippi Surge-Scape.
2008- established 30-year traveling retrospective of his global street photography from 64 countries on six continents called Sleeping in the City: Dreamscapes and Other Episodes from Inside the Wire.
2009- eight photographs from Smith's 2007 Streets of the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were accepted into the permanent collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), as part of the hurricane memorial portfolio.
2009- a portfolio of 45 of Smith's 1997–1999 Holdout Streets of the Montserrat Volcano Disaster was accepted into the permanent collection of the Montserrat National Trust.
Personal life
Smith had a difficult upbringing that ended badly, ultimately shaping resilience as a major theme in his artwork. His mother committed suicide, a victim of uncontrollable depression, when he was only 5, resulting in his development as a self-reliant and fiercely independent spirit unencumbered by self doubt.He was knocked unconscious in secondary lightning strikes twice as a teenager, once when he was 15 and again at 19, resulting in later incorporation of the fury of nature into his global street photography method.
In 1976 Smith was abruptly disabled during a knee operation when insufficient room for swelling was left in the cast that was applied and his nerve was crushed from three inches above the knee all the way down through his left foot. This rendered him either in agonizing pain and/or existing under the influence of powerful painkillers for the rest of his life.
In 1978 while hitchhiking across the United States, Smith picked up a newspaper one morning at a truck stop outside Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Scottsbluff is a city in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 15,039 at the 2010 census. Scottsbluff is the largest city in the Nebraska Panhandle, and the 13th largest city in Nebraska....
and was inspired by an article he read promising cheaper international airfares under the new Airline Deregulation Act
Airline Deregulation Act
The Airline Deregulation Act is a United States federal law signed into law on October 24, 1978. The main purpose of the act was to remove government control over fares, routes and market entry from commercial aviation...
. That development, when blended with an inexplicable wanderlust, compelled him to become a fine art global street photographer instead of the other less exciting (more painful and less pain distracting) things left available to him.
Smith’s street photography books
- “Molten Memoirs: Essays, Rumors, Field Notes and Photographs From The Edge of Fury” (1999, 2000, 2001, 2009) An Artist’s Account of the Volcano Holdouts of Salem, Montserrat. (Issued on tape for the sight impaired in 2001 by Audio Reader; 2009 issued as a Kindle Edition)
- “Searching For Washington Square” (2001) (Published by the Traver Foundation)
- “White With Foam”: Essays, Rumors, Field Notes, and Photographs from the Edge of World War III (September 10, 2001 to September 12, 2002) (Published as an online book December 2007)
- ”The Road to Hell: How to Make Heaven Out of Third Class Travel” 2009.