Allison V. Smith: Plain View
Artist Statement
In 2004, I quit my day job as a staff photographer at the Dallas Morning News to pursue freelance and fine art photography. Day one of being self- employed, I drove to Marfa with my future husband, our two dogs and my red Hasselblad and a bunch of film. I took the opportunity to slow down, wait for the light and make photography. I have continued photographing Marfa and surrounding West Texas towns over the years as an ongoing study of the landscape and light. I love trying to capture the slow desert pace and the mythical light.
“My photography is about looking for serendipity and having my camera loaded with film and ready for when it happens.”
– Allison V. Smith
Allison V. Smith is a freelance photographer for the New York Times, The Guardian, and Texas Monthly. Smith has worked as a photojournalist for seven newspapers since graduating from Southern Methodist University with a degree in journalism. In 2004, she left the Dallas Morning News to pursue fine art photography and freelance photography for editorial clients. Allison’s clients also include Al Jazeera America, Nasher Sculpture Center, and Le Monde Magazine.
Her fine art projects, featured in this solo exhibition, are focused on exploring the landscape and personality of West Texas and Marfa. Smith’s skill as a documentarian is evident in her fine art photographs. But here she pushes our perception beyond the mere facts into a zone where color and composition isolate, enhance and transform rural subjects into regional icons.
Allison V. Smith’s fine art photography is in private and public collections including the Dallas Museum of Art, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and The Grace Museum.
*All images are courtesy of the artist and Barry Whistler Gallery
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