Avoiding ANGST

In a world dominated by alienation and decay, the collection of Rodney Smith photographs at the Pucker Gallery is like a breath of fresh air. His photography is simple and expressive, but with a touch of wit. Compared with the in-your-face, shocking, ephemeral art produced today, Smith's photographs seem very out of place. Classical in their composition and serene in their mood, each of them invites us to stop and reflect.

Smith studied theology in addition to photography, and there is a sense of this influence in his work. The mood of each photograph is peaceful and meditative, quiet and serene, almost religious. The everyday world is left behind and is even transformed into something sacred and mystical. While most modern art would have us search our minds for the dark things waiting there, Smith's art points to the beauty and possibility of life in a whimsical but thoughtful way.

Smith works exclusively in black-and-white, but only after a twenty-year career that also included work in color. This devotion to black-and-white makes him quite unique, especially because he is a professional, not solely an artist.

Indeed, he especially admires the great masters of the Renaissance whose greatest works were created for demanding clients, and about half of the works in this collection are commissioned pieces. Strangely, the difference between professional and artistic photographs is not detectable. There is as much power and mystery in the photographs which adorned the pages of a Neiman Marcus catalog as in those made as artworks. In fact, according to Smith, it's in commissioned pieces that one can assess a photographer's competence and skill. Only a truly skilled artist will be able to work with the limitations imposed by a client and still produce an image full of meaning.

There is beauty in simplicity, and Smith's photographs are proof of this. Large open spaces unfold in front of our eyes. A figure stands before us, often looking straight at us with penetrating eyes, sometimes contemplatively looking off into the distance. The whole composition is balanced with nothing to distract the viewer's eye.

Smith is as meticulous with photography as his Renaissance predecessors were with painting: In the age of computer enhancement and image manipulation, he still does everything by hand. As a result, no photograph can be exactly reproduced--a uniqueness that lends a certain poetic beauty to each work. Every image seems to capture a fleeting image, the enchanting mood which lasts for a fraction of a second and then is gone forever.

Because Smith works solely with natural light, this is at times quite literally the case. A gust of wind, background mists, a single ray of sunlight--images this natural don't wait for anyone.

All of Smith's work consciously opposes the remoteness, emptiness and angst of modernity. Instead, Smith's photographs are filled with the beauty and whimsy of life, all that is graceful and lasting. Far from being shallow dreams of "the good old days," his photographs express a profound call towards simplicity.

Smith believes that art is long overdue for a change in attitude. The people in his landscapes are direct and individual. Elegant and serious, yet curiously eccentric, they embody life as Smith sees it. They are intelligent, perceptive, complex people who have something to tell us. Obeying no rules, they make their own paths in the world.

In one photo, a man in a white suit standing on an aluminum ladder next to an ancient tree looks into the distance, a shroud of mists in the background. The view must be better from up there.

Even in a collection composed of images ranging from landscapes to intense, personal portraits, the clarity and beauty of the exhibition's title unify the photographs. A surprise waits in every image, one that neither shocks nor disturbs, but instead brings a smile to your face. This is rare among modern artists, and it may be that viewers are finally ready for an end to the artificiality and abstraction of modernity.