Photographer #294: Dorothée Smith

Dorothée Smith, 1985, France, is a young conceptual photographer who studied at the Ecole Nationale Superieure de la Photographie in Arles. Her series Löyly is a sequence of portraits and landscapes. Löyly, Finnish for Steam, is a word that describes the raising of healthy smoke resulting from the transformation of matter; water to steam. This and her reference to Gender Trouble written by Judith Butler have resulted in a series of melancholic images. She photographs people she knows or has some connection with, showing a generation of young men and women who try to have or find an identity that surpasses the standard. They go outside of the borders in who they are as people, but also in their sexual identity. The results are stunning portraits of undetermined or dissolved identities. Dorothée has released three books with blurb. The following images come from the series Löyly, Loon and Spree.

Website: www.dorotheesmith.net

Photographer #159: Paul M. Smith

Paul M. Smith, 1969, Great-Britain often focuses on the theme of masculinity. In series as Artist Rifles and Make My Night he is the only person in the photograph. They are several images put into one using himself in various roles. In the series Mr Smith, he has manipulated the selfportraits to resemble those of famous male figures. In his series This is not Pornography he plays with the gender and sexuality. The following images come from the series Mr Smith, Artist Rifles and Make My Night.

Website: www.paulmsmith.co.uk

Photographer #041: Brian Smith

Brian Smith, USA, 1959, is most known for his celebrity portrait photography. When looking at his collection we see a vast number of Hollywood stars portrayed by Smith. Recently he has been working on a project called Art & Soul. Portraits of celebrities with personal notes on how exposure to arts positively impacted their lives. These photographs will be collected in a coffee table book and was already presented to the White House to lobby for more funding for the arts and art education.

On his website we find a large number of portraits in the category Fine Art, displaying once again the large number of people that have worked with Brian.

Website: www.briansmith.com