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Rangefinder
Magazine
When Matthew Jordan Smith’s father, a minister and amateur photographer, realized his son was fooling around with his camera equipment, he did what any wise dad would do—he bought Smith his very own camera. Within a short time, the second bathroom in the family’s Columbia, South Carolina, home had been converted into a darkroom, and the young boy had embarked on what would become a lifelong passion. Not that Smith’s career didn’t take a few twists and turns on the way. He started out thinking he’d be a sports photographer. “I was into sports myself, and in high school I started taking pictures of my friends’ teams.” After enrolling in the Art Institute of Atlanta, Smith realized his first career goal—a photograph he’d taken was published in Sports Illustrated. It looked like an auspicious sign. But around the same time, Smith fell in love with fashion photography. “There is nothing else quite like it,” he says. “I could be more interpretive. I could find my own unique way to look through the camera lens.” When a professor mentioned that the world’s best fashion photographers were in New York and Paris, Smith decided immediately to relocate to New York.
There, Smith spent the next four years as a photo assistant, working for industry luminaries such as Gregory Heisler and Antoine Verglas. The work helped Smith get handson experience with the technical skills required for fashion photography. “I learned how to set up a shoot and test film,” he says. But when he landed his first photo assignment, he realized how much he still had to master. “Being a fashion photographer is so much more than taking photos,” he explains. “You can have everything figured out—the right film, the right camera, the right lighting. Then the person you’re photographing comes in and is in a horrible mood. She sees the first Polaroid and hates it. Now it’s up to the photographer to turn that situation around.” Smith’s aptitude for this aspect of fashion photography was put to the test on his first assignment. “I was invited to take a series of photos of female executives for Essence,” he recalls. “My job was to make them feel comfortable, to capture both their beauty and their power.” Did he succeed? The answer came in the form of a follow-up assignment: the Essence editors asked him to photograph Oprah for the magazine’s 25th anniversary cover. For Smith, it was a more than a vote of confidence: it was the signal that he’d made it. The Oprah photo placed him squarely among the top fashion photographers in the world. “It was a high point,” Smith says.
But high points are just that: high points. As heady as those days were, they didn’t mean Smith’s career would always head in an upward trajectory. On the contrary, he likens careers to the stock market. “They go up and down,” he says. Things hit a particular low in the months following September 11, 2001. New York City’s economy was shattered by the tragedy of that day—and the fashion industry took close to two years to recover. Smith’s phone wasn’t ringing as often, and he wrestled with self-doubt. Ultimately, his natural resilience and optimism won out. “I’d been asked to lecture one day a week at the School of the Visual Arts. The zest in the students’ eyes was inspiring. It reminded me of what I was doing this for. I thought to myself, ‘Why sit here and wallow? I’m doing my dream job!’” One student in particular caught Smith’s attention. She kept asking Smith the same question, over and over. “She would say, ‘What’s the secret? What’s the secret to becoming successful in this work?’” Smith’s answer: there is no secret. “It’s hard work. Tenacity. Pursuing your dream.”
Around the same time, Smith also noticed that many people were curious about his ethnicity and how it had affected his career path. “People would say, ‘How did you get started in this career? We’ve never seen an African American working at such high levels in this industry. How did you do it?’” It occurred to him that if people were curious about him, they might also be curious about other African American celebrities. And so was born the idea for Sepia Dreams: A Celebration of Black Achievement Through Words and Images. “The book features pictures and interviews of 50 African American celebrities,” Smith explains, “telling the stories of how they achieved success.” Each story has its own unique theme, he continues. “Sam Jackson talks about perseverance; Susan Taylor discusses the importance of balance.”
As a whole, the book provides a source of both inspiration and guidance. Smith knows the book’s inspiration and guidance firsthand: putting the book together helped him deepen his commitment to his career. “What I’ve learned is that when your career slows down, it’s an opportunity to look at what you’re doing and learn from it. As a photographer, I sometimes find myself doing the same things, over and over. But that’s not necessarily healthy.” Working on the book represented a huge change from anything he’d done before. And, Smith says it made him sharper mentally. Today, as a result, his career is flourishing as never before. One big change from the early days of his career: at his studio in Midtown Manhattan, he runs a small staff that includes interns from the School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute. Smith loves having the students around. They help with everything from answering the phone to testing film—something he does regularly. “I’ve been using Kodak film ever since I was a kid, when I went around shooting Kodachrome,” he says. “But every once in awhile we run tests to see what else is out there.” Today, he uses Kodak Professional Ektachrome E100G most of the time. “I loved it the minute I started using it, particularly the color and the way the color translates, even in open shade, and the grain is amazing.” Smith’s other equipment includes a Mamiya RZ 6x7 camera, which he often uses with a 110 or 75mm lens, and a Contax 645 camera, which he shoots with either a 80 or a 120mm macro lens. For lights, he uses Kino-Flo and ProFoto strobes, often pairing the latter with an Octabank softbox.
The interns also help Smith in his next project: his
second book. This one, he says, will focus on the importance of family. “It’s
another lesson I’ve learned. No matter what happens in your career,
family is what is most important.” For more information on Sepia Dreams: A Celebration of Black Achievement Through Words and Images go to http://www.sepiadreams.com. Matthew Jordan Smith will be presenting a program at WPPI ‘04 on Tuesday, February 24, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at BALLY’s Las Vegas. The program is entitled “Secrets to Making Memorable Portraits.” Kirsten
Mortensen is a writer based in Rochester, N.Y., specializing in photography-related
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