Rodney Smith

Rodney Smith (1947–2016) was an American fashion and portrait photographer whose elegantly surreal black‑and‑white images created enchanting worlds full of subtle contradictions and surprises. Born in New York City, he discovered his artistic calling during a junior‑year visit to the Museum of Modern Art’s photography collection. After earning a BA from the University of Virginia in 1970, he completed an MA in theology at Yale University—minoring in photography under Walker Evans—before receiving a Jerusalem Foundation Fellowship in 1976 that led to his first book, In the Land of Light.

Smith traveled widely—to the American South, Haiti, and Wales—making intimate, soul‑searching portraits of workers and farmers and capturing landscapes with a poetic eye. Influenced by Ansel Adams’s technical precision, he perfected every element of the photographic process—camera, film, exposure, developer, paper—to render each subject in a rich spectrum of tones, from crisp highlights to velvety shadows. His whimsical compositions, often compared to the work of surrealist painters like René Magritte, were always un‑retouched, relying solely on light and film to achieve their dream‑like quality.

In New York, Smith’s editorial clients included The New York Times, W Magazine, Vanity Fair, Departures, and New York Magazine, while his fashion work for Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Ralph Lauren, and Paul Stuart showcased his emerging affinity for spontaneity, humor, and the unexpected. He trusted his instincts to find the right location and the right light, believing that once those were in place, “everything else follows from there.”

Throughout his life, Smith remained deeply committed to the print as a crafted artifact. He described the print as “the creation, the purpose, the result of my endeavor,” and his devotion to the physical beauty of his images helped secure his reputation. Though he passed away in 2016, Rodney Smith’s singular blend of wit, elegance, and optimism continues to inspire photographers and collectors, and his work is regularly exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.