艺术
明·史密斯
words by Faith Cummings
photos by Ackime Snow
While she's gone on to influence photography and the art world at large with her indelible vision that continues to shape how we all see the world around us, Ming Smith's first and still enduring love will always be dance. But from the beginning, that romance was riddled with complexity— making Smith aware of what her Blackness meant to others as a young girl. Her innocent watching of the "tippy-toe girls" and asking to join them in class was quickly confronted with her unvirtuous exclusion by one of the studio's teachers and Smith's subsequent sadness. But she would run up against dance again decades later, 与更具吸引力和支持性的相遇，很快就会教会她凯瑟琳邓纳姆和许多其他黑人编舞家的方式，他们是她自己所做的侨民培养工作的延伸.
早在她成为 MoMA 收藏中的第一位黑人女摄影师之前, 史密斯小时候借了她妈妈的柯达布朗尼, 给她幼儿园的同学拍照——几乎立刻就迷上了创作图像. 这种钦佩一直持续到她在霍华德大学的时间, 她在那里选修了摄影课程, 在她做模特的日子里, 当她开始思考将摄影作为一种艺术形式的想法时，全球艺术行业正在进行同样的对话.
Kamoinge Workshop 是她找到艺术家归宿的地方: 纽约市一个有影响力的黑人摄影师团体，成立于 1963, 史密斯渴望在当时同时发生的黑人艺术和民权运动中拥有自己的空间后，于 70 年代加入了该组织. "在那个非常特殊的时期，集体积极努力推动我们的人民前进," 她说. "罗伊·德卡拉瓦 (Roy DeCarava) 开始举办研讨会是为了拥有一定的自主权，并对主流的黑人形象发表看法. 多次, 媒体存在负面刻板印象, 所以我们想制作来自我们自己的社区和我们自己的观点的图像。"
在现代艺术博物馆来访之前，她制作了多年的作品 1979. "作为博物馆的第一位黑人女摄影师给了我肯定, 但我总是形容那感觉就像我获得了奥斯卡金像奖, 但没有人知道," 她说. 当时只有少数人知道她的成就, 很明显，为她之后的这么多人开辟她创造的空间在当时是具有挑战性和孤独的. "没有办法进入摄影行业，因为那时候它不是一门生意," 她透露. "当时唯一的摄影师从事时尚和广告业, 他们中没有一个黑人能够保住自己的工作室。" So Smith likens her career to that of a mixed media artist or painter—Faith Ringgold is one of the names that easily come to her mind because of her protests against art institutions to have Black artists showcased in their collections.
But as much as breaking ground and defying the odds are integral to Smith's journey, so are genuine moments of joy in capturing tender moments with some of the world's most iconic artists. When ruminating on her favorite photos, she instantly brings to mind shooting the great American sculptor and graphic artist Elizabeth Catlett and the "Godmother of African American Art" Dr. Samella S. Lewis. The two visionaries were also close friends, and Lewis wrote a book on Catlett's work in 1984—about twenty years into Catlett's exile from the U.S. in Mexico. "I was really new when we first met, but when I was in Los Angeles, and they were in their later years, I took photos of them together and it was a beautiful moment," she recalls. The inimitable Gordon Parks was also a dear friend of Smith's, and she spoke fondly of the photo hanging on her wall now that she had taken of his last Christmas. "Every New Year's Day, one of my best friends and I would go to my lawyer's house and Gordon Parks's home was right around the corner, so we'd walk over," she reminisces. "I remember Gordon would still have his Christmas tree up on New Year's Day."
Smith ultimately wants to leave a legacy of hope to young Black photographers and a pathway of sorts for what's possible in their careers. 她对所有有抱负和工作的艺术家可以从谈话和采访中获得的洞察力感到鼓舞, 她欣喜若狂，因为有这么多年轻人对摄影感兴趣——足以去一所她刚出道时还不存在的摄影学校.
在现在, 史密斯仍在捕捉她周围的世界, 以其所有的美丽和复杂性. 她的第一次个展, 项目: 明·史密斯, 将在 MoMA 展出至 5 月底, 她仍然与舞蹈保持着充实而充满爱意的关系, 尽可能多地参加 Sabar 和非洲裔古巴舞蹈课程. 她的未来完全取决于她; 我们很高兴能一起兜风.