Leap of Faith: Rodney Smith Retrospective

Celebrating photographer Rodney Smith's 45-year career and the J. Paul Getty Museum’s newly published book celebrating Smith’s life, Gilman Contemporary presents, Rodney Smith Retrospective: Leap of Faith, June 13- July 25th.

Paul Martineau, Curator of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, will be in attendance to meet with collectors and sign books at the gallery July 7th during the opening reception of the exhibition.

Rodney Smith (1947-2016) was a renowned New York based photographer who in the tradition of Avedon, Penn and William Klein, transcended fashion photography into fine art. Rodney Smith developed a unique style balancing technical mastery and a desire to portray the best of humanity.

Long acclaimed for his iconic images that combine portraiture and landscape, Smith created enchanted worlds full of subtle contradictions and surprises. Using only film and light, his unretouched, dream-like images are matched in quality by the craft and physical beauty of his prints. He was a creator who cared deeply about sharing his vision of the world with humor, grace, and optimism.

Smith’s work continues to be shown at museums and galleries worldwide. In 2021 the J. Paul Getty Museum acquired ten of his photographs for their permanent collection. In May of 2023 Getty Publications will release, Rodney Smith: A Leap of Faith, a collection of essays and photographs compiled by Paul Martieau, Curator of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, with contributions by
Rebecca A. Snef and Leslie Smolan and an introduction by Graydon Carter.

“In each of his carefully-crafted compositions, he banishes the chaos of modern life for another that is grounded in a romantic view of the past. Like Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, he asks us to follow him down the rabbit hole to a fantastical place that is just beyond our reach, but one intended to inspire us to be better versions of ourselves,” says Paul Martineau, Curator of Photographs, J.Paul Getty Museum.

In addition to the J. Paul Getty Museum’s collection, Smith’s work is included in Houston Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX); Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA); Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA); Bayley Museum, University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA); Museum of Art, Brigham Young University (Salt Lake City, UT); Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University (Waltham, MA); National September 11th Memorial & Museum (New York, NY); and Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT).