Michener Art Museum

Michael A. Smith

PHOTOGRAPHER
BORN: February 16, 1942

I have always believed that it is how one sees rather than what one sees that makes any photograph interesting. Whether I photograph in the natural or the urban landscape, the challenge always is to balance the allure of the subject matter with my own visual concerns and sense of abstraction.

-- Michael A. Smith

Michael A. Smith has been a photographer since 1966. Though he initially worked exclusively with an 8x10 inch view camera and contact prints he has since added both an 8x20 inch and a 19x22 inch cameras to his repertoire. Smith taught for seven and a half years, but has long since ceased teaching in order to fully dedicate himself to his photography.

Smith’s principal subject matter is the landscape, both natural and urban, though he is also currently working on a series of portraits made in Phoenix, Arizona. Smith has exhibited his work in over 200 exhibitions, including a 25-year retrospective exhibition at the International Museum of Photography at the Eastman House in Rochester, New York in 1992. Smith’s dramatic black and white landscapes were published in 1981 in his first book, Landscapes 1975-1979, and awarded Le Grand Prix du Livre Photographique at the Rencontres Internationale de la Photographie in Arles, France.

Smith has thoroughly travelled the continental United States as well as numerous international locations. His most recent photographic expeditions were to Baja, California and Iceland with his wife, the photographer Paula Chamlee.

The James A. Michener Art Museum has held a number of exhibitions of Smith's work including "Michael A. Smith: A Visual Journey," (1991-1992) and "Photographs by Michael A. Smith" (2002).