Dream-like photography of Rodney Smith is celebrated in new book

The paradoxical work of acclaimed fashion photographer Rodney Smith will appear in a brand new book by Getty Publications. Rodney Smith: A Leap of Faith is a collection of more than 200 photos, many of which have never been seen before from Smith’s hugely successful 45-year career. 

Born and raised in New York, Smith started his career as a photo essayist but he found success as a fashion photographer. Carving a niche that blurred the lines between fashion and fine art, Smith’s approach to photography was fun, free-spirited, funny and grounded in feeling. As a regular contributor to The New York Times and Vanity Fair, Smith was no stranger to seeing his work in glossy magazines and by brands such as Ralph Lauren and Paul Stewart. 

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Smith shot entirely on film using a Leica M4, a Leica M6 (opens in new tab) and a medium format Hasselblad with an 80mm lens. Almost all his portraits were lit with natural light, preferring to work with his surroundings, although Smith did occasionally enlist the help of constant light. 

Getty Museum Curator, Paul Martineau describes Smith’s work as, “like Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, his photographs lead us down the rabbit hole to a fantastical place that is just beyond our reach but one intended to inspire us to be better versions of ourselves.”

Smith’s photographs are accompanied by a weaving, historical essay written by Martineau covering Smith’s introduction to photography and how his career evolved. Rebecca A Senf, the chief curator at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson has also provided a technical assessment of his work, exploring his exact processes and how he used photography as a way of connecting to people.