Copyright 2015 Aline Smithson
Photographer: Aline Smithson (born & resides Los Angeles, CA, USA)
Publisher: Magenta Foundation (Canada)
Essays: Paula Tognarelli, Karen Sinsheimer & Aline Smithson (A.S.)
Text: English
Hardcover book, sewn binding, four-color lithography, printed in China
Photobook designer: Office of Gilbert Li
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Review by Douglas Stockdale
This monograph is a wonderful mid-career touch-point (as I know that just about every artist is loath to have a “retrospective” published while still in the midst of developing new work) that chronologically encompasses her early black and white analog projects, then a period of hand-coloring silver gelatin prints and currently exploring portraiture with the color photographic medium.
She has learned to masterly fill the square frame with her subjects, frequently her family as well as family of friends and make excellent use of her training as a painter in creating the accompanying background sets. One can see the early influence of the ambiguous style of Keith Carter or the family in masks of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, evolving to when her vision becomes more uniquely her own with her hand-colored photographs and subsequent color portrait projects. Portrait as Autobiography is thus a very apt subtitle to Smithson’s book Self & Others, an on-going collection of portraits by the photographer.
The late Karen Sinsheimer states in the forward; “Smithson manages to explore and explicate larger questions and issues as she remains true to who she is. She does not flinch from unpleasant or painful memories, nor does she shy away from an honest assessment of her work. Smithson maintains a sense of humor as well as a humanity; her photographs reflect her kind nature. One never senses meanness nor voyeuristic “gotcha” moments. She is unafraid of trying new ideas as she is of failing; she simply learns from and analyzes the experience and stores it in her memory for future reference.”
Cheers!
PhotoBook Journal 