African American photographer Ming Smith was born in Detroit and raised in Columbus, Ohio; her family was one of the first to integrate their neighborhood in the 1950s. Smith’s father, a pharmacist, introduced her to photography, and she began photographing her classmates in kindergarten. When she entered college at Howard University in Washington, DC, she intended to pursue a career in the medical field. After graduating, she relocated to New York to become a photographer and used modeling as a way to earn a living while she worked to establish herself professionally in the 1970s. Smith became friends with model-actress-singer Grace Jones and photographed her and other Black cultural icons throughout her career. Her first exhibition was at the Cinandre hair salon, known then as the Studio 54 of the salon world.
Smith was the first woman to join the Kamoinge Workshop, a Black photographers’ collective, as well as the first African American woman to have her work acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, in 1978. Reflecting on that experience, she recounted, “I thought I was going to be rich, but it didn’t even really cover my supplies.”[1] On her improvisational style, Smith comments, “I wanted to add color [the way] someone would put a ribbon on a dress or a lacy collar or a big belt—to embellish and make it more exciting.”[2] Gordon Parks's photographs in color inspired her to seriously consider color photography, which at the time was seen as an advertising style and more appropriate for the fashion industry. Smith’s practice is to carry two cameras with her so that she can shoot in both black and white and in color.
PMA Collection
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Notes
[1] Pires 2020
[2] Smith quoted in Greenberger 2020
References
Greenberger, Alex. 2020. “Ming Smith Shook Up Photography in the ’70s. Now She Is Coming into Full View.” ARTnews. Accessed July 20, 2021. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/ming-smith-photography-aperture-kamoinge-workshop-1234576646/.
“Ming Smith.” n.d. Steven Kasher Gallery. Accessed July 20, 2021. http://www.stevenkasher.com/artists/ming-smith.
“Ming Smith.” n.d. Artsy. Accessed July 20, 2021. https://www.artsy.net/artist/ming-smith.
Murray, Yxta Maya. 2020. “Ming Smith’s Pioneering Excavations of Black Femininity.” New Yorker. Accessed July 20, 2021. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/ming-smiths-pioneering-excavations-of-black-femininity.
Pires, Candice. 2020. “Ming Smith: I’ve Always Had to Break Boundaries.” The Guardian. Accessed July 20, 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/may/17/ming-smith-ive-always-had-to-break-boundaries.
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