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찍은 장소를 보면 모두가 다른 것같은데...어슷하게 영국적이랄 수 있는 무드를 뽑아내는 것보면 정말 대단타고...생각된다. 하지만.
영어를.................읽고 싶다.
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Danielle in boat, Beaufort, South Carolina, 1996
Don jumping over hay roll no.1, Monkton, Maryland, 1999
Golfer seated with golf ball on head no.2, Pebble Beach, California, 1998
Putting green with golf balls, Nyack, New York, 2002
Man standing on top hat, Snedens Landing, New York, 1999
Jonah with head in hedge no.1, Vienna, Austria, 1998
Focus-group hypnosis, New York City, 2001
Couple, San Francisco, California, 1996
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Rodney Smith
The black and white photographs of Rodney Smith are recognizable for their somewhat anachronistic air, for their impeccable (if not perfectionist) composition and that mild and graceful surrealism that makes them so pleasantly humorous, in a British way. In addition to having studied photography at Yale with Walker Evans, Smith also received his degree in theology and he admits that it is a "religious or existential element" that guides his work. His objective is to express, through photography, the idea that life must be lived with commitment, but also with a conscious levity without taking oneself too seriously because, after all, we are all fallible, vulnerable and only on this earth temporarily. The people whose portraits he takes--always impeccably dressed--perform paradoxical gestures with great "naturalness", bringing to mind both the strange figures that populate the works of Magritte as well as typically-British comedians whose unexpected actions, rather than what they say, is what makes us laugh. Rodney Smith invents formally exemplary scenes in which upper class men and women perform things which, even if not actually improper, are at least bizarre and give rise to surprise and laughter. One dignified looking man, bowler hat in-hand, buries his head in a bush; another like him who seems to have just left his tailor, agilely leaps over a haystack; an elegantly-dressed man in tails balances a miniature cut-out of another, also in tails, on his top hat; an attractive woman in evening dress stands straight up in a boat making its way through a forest of trees in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Good taste and refinement are key in Smith's images and his biography sheds light on his family background that could partially explain his passion for aesthetics and the fine points of style. His father was an important businessman who was a success in the fashion field--a world based primarily on appearance that made its way into the Smith home, infecting young Rodney who was apparently already attuned to the characteristics of precious fabrics and the slightest details of weaves, sketches or models. A passion for the little, precious things that would influence his way of taking photographs defined as "classic tableaux" in which the luxurious minutiae play the lion's share together with the metaphysical aspects.
The beauty of photographic art struck him with a vengeance the day in which, still a student, he visited the permanent collection at MoMA. At that time, Edward Steichen was still the museum's curator. Standing in front of the images by Eugene Smith, Minor White and Dorothea Lange, Rodney told himself "I can do this, too" and, although he now admits that in the past he was very arrogant and tremendously immodest, it was his desire to try and his tremendous confidence in himself that
saved him from an otherwise less-artistic destiny. After receiving his degree, Smith struggled hard to find his own road and earn his living. They were difficult years, typical of a talented but struggling artist who, to keep from dying of hunger, did his best to put together works to sell to companies, taught or made prints for his first clients. Then came his big break. A friend who was head of an advertising agency commissioned a commercial work in black and white. He was finally on his way.
Today, Rodney Smith teaches regularly at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in New Mexico. He lives with his wife and daughter in Snedens Landing on the Hudson near New York City, has published
two books (In the Land of Light, 1983; The Hat Book, 1993) and is currently working on a third. He works with Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, W Magazine, and his clients include The New York Stock Exchange, American Express, BMW, MCI Worldcom, The New York City Ballet, Starbucks, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Visa.
Cristina Franzoni
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