Rodney Smith

This photography book of Rodney Smith's photographs is beautiful. I had never heard of Rodney Smith before and this is a massive mistake on my part. I love photography in general and am so happy to have been exposed to his work. The book is laid out really well and each photograph has a good place in the book. I would definitely buy this when it is released!

The first fifty or so pages of this work are a combination of a few images along with a pocket biography of Smith. It discusses both his life and his work referring to some of the plates that comprise the balance of this 250 page paean to Smith’s life and work. I enjoyed both the biography as well as moving through the plates several times. Most of the plates are grayscale (black and white) but a few are color. Other than Smith’s famous couple on a taxicab and woman on a floatplane, I found the grayscale images more compelling.

Smith used the best technology of his time with first a Leica and then a Hasselblad both with the accompanying lenses. Technology has moved on. Today even inexpensive consumer grade cameras (not phone cameras!) can duplicate any image in this book. It’s a good example of the saying that photographers make images rather than cameras making them.

While Smith gained fame as a fashion photographer, this volume also contains some excellent landscapes as well as street images most if not all of which are posed rather than candid. The influence of Adams and Cartier-Bresson is strong as is Smith’s teacher Walker Evans. While the technical aspects of these images are superb, their key is the set.

Fashion photographers live or die by the pose and the set. The best starting with Steichen moving through Horst, Penn and Avedon to today’s Testino combines technical excellence with setups. Smith adds often bizarre whimsy to the mix such as his girl on a floatplane wing (color) or the man leaping rooftops while holding an umbrella.

The viewer is taken with these images but then wonders why the umbrella? Why is the man leaping? Why is a formally dressed girl on a floatplane wing? That’s where Smith moves above others who often move into unrealistic sets but never to the point of fantastic quirkiness.

In sum, this is not only a general coffee table book but one worth studying not just for the hopeful fashion snapper but also anybody having a general interest in photography. A viewer will recognize great images but also learn by asking, “Why is this image great?” Rodney Smith was a great if troubled, photographer who produced many images for the ages. The Getty Museum along with this book’s curator has done justice to the man and his work in this volume.

I am comfortable recommending it highly.

Rodney Smith was an interesting read. The photography included is very well done and impressive. The commentary is equally interesting to read.

What a treasure of a book. I was unfamiliar with the photography of Rodney Smith but I am a huge fan now. The book starts with a biography of Smith and then features many photos for most of the book, ending with a couple of essays about his impact.

The photos are stunning— whimsical, deep, creative and beautiful. He did fashion, portraits, landscapes and character studies, and gave them all striking, original treatment. Highly recommended.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book via NetGalley.

I absolutely loved reading this book. I was completely drawn into the topic and could not stop reading it.

I enjoyed looking at the photos in this book. Rodney Smith was a very creative photographer. Some of the staging were so unusual you actually had to take a few moments to look at the images. Aspiring fashion photographers would do well to pick up this book for the inspiration.

I am a huge fan of photography and am chagrinned to say I had never heard of Rodney Smith. I am so glad I do now! His photography is incredibly beautiful with multiple influences from fashion photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Walker Evans (who had been his professor at Yale) among many others. There are many beautiful plates of his black and white and then later in his career, color photographs (he resisted color for many years). There are guest essayists who write about his life and work and one of my favorite passages was Graydon Carter describing his work as Wes Anderson plus Rene Magritte divided by Fellini minus Irving Penn equals Rodney Smith. I think this sums up Smith's style very well. I also liked learning about how for Smith, photography was a way for him to stay engaged in the world even as he dealt with anxiety and depression at times. He had personal relationships with the subjects which shines through in his photos. One of this last commissions before he died, was to do the photo cover for Amor Towle's book" A Gentleman in Moscow," a book on my shelf I have read and enjoyed and really admired the cover. Now things come full circle and I finally know about the man behind the photo. I recommend this book. Thank you to Netgalley and Getty Publications for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

"A Leap of Faith" by Paul Martineau is an excellent tribute to the life and work of Rodney Smith, a photographer whose name may not be widely known but whose extraordinary images are certainly worth knowing. Martineau, the Curator of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, has collaborated with the Estate of Rodney Smith to bring together over 200 photographs from Smith's entire career, along with accompanying background and contextual information.

The book takes the reader on a journey through Smith's creative trajectory, from his early days as a photo-essayist and portrait photographer to his greatest success in the world of fashion and lifestyle photography. Smith's technical mastery and pure beauty are evident in his stylish characters and sophisticated compositions, which exist in a timeless world of his imagination. The book covers Smith's personal life and character, giving insight into his affluent yet complex upbringing and his gravitation towards liberal arts education and ultimately photography and theology.

The influence of Smith's early teacher, Walker Evans, is apparent in his socially conscious images, and the book covers his success with corporate commissions, portraits, and global travel. Smith's marriage to Leslie Smolen marked the beginning of a creative period of collaboration in the late 1980s, and his success in fashion photography is a highlight of the book. The text relates relationships with fashion designers, magazines, and models, as well as his experiments with color film and digital printing.

The plates in the book are a delight, with many echoing the styles and subjects of photographers that predated Smith's work. The technical aspects of Smith's photography are also covered in the text, with interesting descriptions and reminiscences of how some of his most famous photographs came to be. The book closes with essays from those who worked with Smith and knew him well, adding richness and depth to this publication.

Overall, "A Leap of Faith" is a comprehensive and insightful record of the life's work and worldview of a truly original artist. Anyone who enjoys classic film photography from the 20th Century is sure to enjoy this book, and it is highly recommended for anyone interested in the art of photography or fashion.

I think this book does a good job at complying some of Rodney Smith's strongest work and showing how he was influenced my his teachers and the world around him. I thoroughly enjoy how he was able to get such good contrast in his images. His photos are quite inspirational for an amateur photographer like myself.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

"Rodney Smith: A Leap of Faith" is a compelling exploration of the artistic journey of Rodney Smith, masterfully presented by Paul Martineau. This book is not merely a collection of Smith's iconic photographs; it is a narrative that weaves together the threads of Smith's personal history, his creative evolution, and the profound impact of his work.

Martineau's writing is both eloquent and insightful, offering readers a window into Smith's world—a world where the whimsical coexists with the solemn, and the stillness of a photograph belies the movement within. The book serves as a testament to Smith's technical mastery and his unwavering pursuit of beauty, presenting nearly two hundred reproductions of his images, many of which have never been published before.

The forward by Timothy Potts and the introduction by Graydon Carter enhance the reader's understanding of Smith's influence and legacy. They highlight the duality present in Smith's work: the composed yet candid, the mysterious yet revealing, the desperate yet funny. It's this duality that captures the essence of Smith's vision, one that finds the extraordinary in the ordinary and transforms the mundane into the magical.

"Rodney Smith: A Leap of Faith" is more than a photobook; it is a record of a life's work and a unique artistic worldview. It is a definitive piece for admirers of Smith's photography and a source of inspiration for aspiring photographers and artists alike. The book stands as a celebration of Smith's contribution to the world of photography—a leap of faith that continues to resonate with each turn of the page.

In short, "A Leap of Faith" is a beautiful and magical book.