Self & Others Portrait As Autobiography

Description

Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography is an almost twenty-year culmination of portrait photographs captured by award-winning photographer Aline Smithson. Beginning with her early forays into black and white work, produced as darkroom silver gelatin prints, she photographed the world around her considering the poignancy of childhood and the pathos of aging and relationships. The book continues with her hand painted photographs featuring her defining series, Arrangement in Green and Black: Portrait of the Photographers Mother, where she combines humor and family to create a universal expression of motherhood. The book is completed by her color projects that revisit beauty, the essence of childhood, and an examination of created realities. Aline brings a background in painting and fashion to her images, but at the heart of her work is her ability to recognize the inner self of her subjects. The photographer considers all her portraits a reflection of herself and the stories she wants to tell, and in that way, she has created a visual language that is her own unique autobiography.

Author description

Aline Smithson is a photographer and teacher who curates for the Los Angeles Center of Photography. She has received the Griffin Museum of Photography Rising Star Award for her contributions to the photographic community. Her work has been selected for "Critical Mass Top 50," "PDN Photo Annual," and "Review Santa Fe." She lives in Los Angeles, California.