Book Review: Rodney Smith: Leap of Faith by Paul Martineau

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Book Review: Rodney Smith: Leap of Faith by Paul Martineau

June 18th, 2023 by Cary Benbow

In Rodney Smith: A Leap of Faith, the inventive and whimsical photographs from the forty-five-year career of well-known fashion photographer Rodney Smith (1947-2016) are carefully collected. This book serves as the authoritative documentation of the life’s work of this incredibly innovative artist and teacher.

Before finding his expertise in portraiture and fashion photography, Smith began his career as a photo essayist. One of his first major portraiture assignments was a commission from the H.J. Heinz corporation for a series of executive portraits. During his zenith he often contributed to The New York Times, W Magazine, Vanity Fair, Departures, and New York Magazine. He also worked on advertising campaigns for upscale stores like Ralph Lauren, Bergdorf Goodman, and Neiman Marcus.

“Like all great art, Rodney’s had a look that became singular over time,
and you recognize it the moment you see it.” —Graydon Carter

Smith’s fashion photography regularly invites parallels to the surrealist Rene Magritte. Both artists share a love of the unexpected and the uncanny. Smith’s images are often full of subtle contradictions and surprises, such as a woman in a ball gown standing in a field of flowers, a man in a three piece suit and bowler hat sitting atop a ladder in an elegantly coifed garden, or a collection of ownerless haute couture shoes leading up and down a spiral marble staircase. These juxtapositions create a sense of unease and wonder, which is also a hallmark of Magritte’s work. Smith’s carefully planned and created scenarios evoke hilarity, contradiction, idealized scenarios, and whimsy.

Along with photography giants like Penn, Leibovitz, and Ritts…Rodney Smith is one of the photographers whose signature style I quickly recognized in popular print media from the 80s and 90s. I will always remember an article I read about him from decades ago. On the day of a photo shoot, Smith would supposedly grab a few rolls of Tri-X, put them in his pocket, arrive at the location and decide how to conduct the session. Smith shot almost exclusively with available light, so if it was sunny, he’d shoot indoors. If it was cloudy, he’d shoot outside. This ‘aw shucks’ reminiscing by Smith was likely just a tall tale to “let the legend grow” (his photo sessions were always carefully pre-planned), but to me, it was inspirational to think a photographer could just make things up as they go, and still be successful. Even masterful.

In Rodney Smith: A Leap of Faith, author Paul Martineau weaves through the history of the artist in a thorough bio-critical essay, charting the artist’s creative trajectory—including his introduction to photography, early personal projects, teaching, commissioned works, and career in fashion—providing insight into his personal life and character and contextualizing his work and creative tendencies within his privileged but isolating upbringing and complex emotional and psychological makeup.

He distinguished himself from his contemporaries by creating startling, dreamlike realms without the use of manipulation or darkroom editing and Smith insisted on processing the film and prints himself. According to Paul Martineau, director of the Getty Museum, Smith’s images “…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.”

Rodney Smith: A Leap of Faith
Paul Martineau, with contributions by Rebecca A. Senf and Leslie Smolan
Introduction by Graydon Carter
J Paul Getty Museum, Hardcover
248 pages, 9 1⁄2 x 111⁄2
224 color illustrations
Published 2023 – Getty Publications

Rodney Smith’s artworks are held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Portland Museum of Art, Maine, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Yale University Art Gallery, Bailey Museum at the University of Virginia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, Brandeis University Museum, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, among others.

Getty Publications produces award-winning titles that result from or complement the work of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Conservation Institute, and Getty Research Institute. This wide variety of books covers the fields of art, photography, archaeology, architecture, conservation, and the humanities for both the general public and specialists. Publications include illustrated works on artists and art history, exhibition catalogs, works on cultural history, research on the conservation of materials and archaeological sites, scholarly monographs, critical editions of translated works, comprehensive studies of Getty’s collections, and educational books on art to interest children of all ages.

About Cary Benbow

Photographer, Writer, Publisher of Wobneb Magazine

View all posts by Cary Benbow →

Location: Online Type: Book Review, Fashion

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