Rick Smith Photographer
After attending Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, Rick returned home to his native Michigan and began what he calls “ my real education into the photo biz”. That was the experience of working in one of the largest and busiest studios in the Detroit area, first as a photographers assistant and later as studio manager overseeing the daily activities of a staff of more than twenty. Rick says “ I wouldn’t take a million dollars for that education”.
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Rick Smith Photographer
After attending Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, Rick returned home to his native Michigan and began what he calls “ my real education into the photo biz”. That was the experience of working in one of the largest and busiest studios in the Detroit area, first as a photographers assistant and later as studio manager overseeing the daily activities of a staff of more than twenty. Rick says “ I wouldn’t take a million dollars for that education”.
In the 1970’s he and the family moved to North Carolina where he owned and operated a commercial advertising photography studio for more than twenty-five years working with such clients as Eastman Kodak, IBM, Remington Arms, Farm Rich, McDonald’s, US Treasury Dept., The National Archives and the US Marine Corp to name a few.
After closing the studio in 1999, he continued, on a limited basis, to do commercial work, however spending more time exploring and creating his personal work. He is now completely devoted to furthering his position in the fine photographic art world.
Rick draws inspiration in the stillness and silence of his subject matter. Being especially drawn to the pastoral countryside he is fascinated by forms and textures in nature with the ability see the complex unpretentiousness in everyday objects and visually transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Using what he calls his “intuitive vision” he creates messages originating in the heart and revealed by the light; meticulous compositions of substance, tone and texture with an uncompromising attention to detail.
Rick has won numerous regional and national awards for his work including his personal favorite, selected for inclusion in ‘Professional Visions; 40 th Anniversary Exhibit of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) at Photokina in Cologne, Germany. He is also included in a permanent collection at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York (1 of only 100 images selected from over 27,000 submittals) and has lectured at RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology, College of Photographic Art). He is also a regular lecturer, workshop leader and contributor in the North Carolina Randolph Community College photographic program.
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