Research Assignment 1

Rodney Smith

taken by Rodney Smith

Ever since first seeing Rodney Smith’s work I have always loved it. Smith creates such stories within his work and they have such a fairy tale feel to them that one can’t help but love. His work often features his subject, mostly people, in places that are out of context for them, business men in forests, a man playing golf off the middle of a huge tree, a woman on top of a pile of mattresses in a park and so on. Smith’s work is usually strongly dependant on lighting and this often helps to create the fairy tale feeling that I suggested the images have earlier. Many of his images use the Rembrandt style of lighting, with the main source of light coming from one large window to the side of the image.


One of the strongest features of Smith’s work is how he places his subjects out of context. This creates a strong sense of unknown and mystery; it forces you to ask “why?” This unusual placing by smith helps to create this fairy-tale feel to his work, where else do you see men skiing down a road, or a girl sleeping on a pile of mattresses in the middle of a forest? You don’t and this gives his work this fantasy type feel.


Smith general photographs in black and white. He’s style is sophisticated, often showing elements of Magritte, and his compositions are built on the classical world of symmetry and balance. Smith’s foremost sources of photographic inspiration are Eugene Smith, Robert Doisneau, Dorothea Lange, Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Henri Cartier-Bresson, but he also feels drawn towards the old masters Rafael, Rembrandt and Vermeer.


Smith works with the minimalist amount of equipment, normally a tripod, and a few Hasselblad cameras. There are usually no lamps as Smith mostly works with available light. This available light that Smith uses is really obvious in some of his photographs and he uses the light to his advantage and when it is in the best position. The light often folds around his subject, suggesting that it was take in the afternoon or early morning. Another lighting that Smith has used in quite a few images is backlight, where the main light comes from behind the subject. In the images with this lighting I feel that Smith may have used some extra lighting to add details to the part of the subject facing the camera.


Smith has work has always seemed very conceptual to me and this is one of the main reason that I love his work so much.

taken by Rodney Smith

taken by Rodney Smith

taken by Rodney Smith

taken by Rodney Smith

taken by Rodney Smith

taken by Rodney Smith

Images from: http://www.rodneysmith.com/portfolio accessed 23/3/11