And with all the artists I’ve posted on We Are Love, including several exceptional ones as of late, I think Rodney Smith is my favorite.
Now definitely one of my favorite photographers of all time, once I stumbled upon his portfolio, I realized I’d seen several of his images before. In their specific moments in time, they left me rather speechless, and after seeing a larger body of his work, I’m absolutely dumbfounded. His concepts are intrepid, his eye is intangibly beautiful, and everything about his work stems from an ubiquitous solidarity that I aspire to in everything I make. I absolutely love his shit. It’s so good. And from what I can see, he shoots film, mostly medium format, and doesn’t do an egregious amount of post besides his developing. Rodney Smith is a photographer, an old school one, with forward moving visions, and not a graphic artist with a nice camera. No offense intended.
His marriage of landscape, fashion, and portrait come together to form an amalgamation of incredible dynamic proportion. As soon as I’m done writing this, I’m going to figure out which kidney I can sell to afford a copy of his new book, which is giant, and in an edition of only 1,000. He also writes a blog, discussing his photos, which is incredibly interesting, that all aspiring photographers should check out.
You can see his stuff here. I recommend it. I’ll continue to sift through his work drooling, trying not to get my keyboard too soaked.
A side note: Upon reading about Mr. Smith’s book, it appears he has an “army of graphic designers”. And I don’t care. I’m still excited by his old school look and charm. And he’s still a favorite.
Enjoy.
