September 9, 2014: Awakening My Silent Blog

I just realized that it has been 4 months since my last post. I have never been the best blogger, but this is a new record. As I look back at the summer there are a few things to share.

My main focus has been my new series Seen Not Heard. I started the project earlier this year and it has been my main source of work throughout the year. Shot solely within the four wall of our home, this series has been an intimate look at the relationships between parent and child. Below is the project statement and a few notable images.


Seen Not Heard
For the past few years I have been creating images to express the emotions of motherhood. My daughter has never been included in those images. But as she has grown from a baby into a force of nature all her own, I was drawn to pull her into my world of conceptual photography and explore our relationship during a time when emotions of love, stress and confusion are high.

Seen Not Heard takes its title from the Old English adage “To Be Seen and Not Heard”, a term often thrown about in reference to the desired behavior of children. These images are silent, but they create a voluble visual narrative on the relationship between parent and child. They explore the cycles that are passed down through generations and the tension between keeping to what is known and forging a newer, and perhaps stronger, path. As strong as the close, forever bond between mother and daughter is, there also exists a distance inherent between two different individuals.

Marks  © 2014 Heather Evans Smith

Cycle  © 2014 Heather Evans Smith

Collections  © 2014 Heather Evans Smith

Flash Powder Reunion
This summer I attended the Flash Powder reunion in Highlands, NC. Last year I had the amazing opportunity to attend a Flash Powder retreat in Corona, NM. You can see my blog post about that experience here. It was wonderful to reconnect with David Bram and Jennifer Schwartz as well as the other photographers. I hope there will be many more reunions in the future.

2014 Flashpowder Reunion
Me, Bill Vaccaro, Gene Ellenberg, Ron Fincannon, Leon Alesi
(photo by David Bram)

Representation by Snap Orlando
When I last blogged I had been a part of the Snap! Orlando show Edge Of A Dream. I am pleased to announce that over the summer I became officially represented by the gallery. Snap! Space has just opened a new gallery in Miami and my work will be on display during their All About Warhol exhibit.

Approaching The Unreal Show at Modernbook Gallery, San Francisco
My photograph Collide is currently on exhibit in the APASF Curator's Voice show Approaching The Unreal. The show will be on display until September 27. Check it out here.

Collide  © 2012 Heather Evans Smith

Critical Mass Finalist
Last week I received the good news that my series Seen Not Heard was a Top 200 Finalist in the Photolucida Critical Mass competition. I was pleased to see so many other familiar names on the list. You can view the full finalist list here.


Visual Narratives Show at The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
My photograph Shed was selected as Director's Choice in the upcoming Visual Narratives show opening Nov 7 through 29. I will be attending the opening and hope to see some of you there.

Shed  © 2014 Heather Evans Smith

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March 11, 2014: The Heart and The Heavy at MoNA Charlotte

My series The Heart and The Heavy has been on a southeast tour since last October. Last weekend the show opened at the MoNA Gallery in Charlotte, NC. Each opening has its own unique components and vibe. Charlotte was no different. Gallery owner, Dan Butner, went above and beyond with this exhibit. Every nook had a new surprise, a prop, a quote from myself regarding specific images, and a viewing station.

I stole the infamous robot, Chuck, away from his owner for the weekend. He was there greeting guests and starring in the viewing of Chucked by director Jared Nelson. Chucked was one of ten winning films at last fall's Project Imaginat10n contest.

I love having the opportunity to talk with patrons about my work. Not only to convey what the work means to me, but to hear what they take away from it. Each piece means something different to everyone and I love the connections that are made during those conversations.

If you missed the opening, the exhibit is up until the end of April. Contact Dan at the MoNA Gallery to view the show. There is also a closing reception at the end of April. Hope to see you there!

The infamous robot, Chuck, greeting guests at the door.

PDN/Emerging Photographer Magazine grand prize winning image Talk To Me on the left.

Props from the photographs were displayed around the gallery.

I love my models! Here I am with Morgan Marlowe and her photo Breathe Me In.

Model Olivia Radley with her photo Stranger On This Earth.

Chuck and I at the end of a wonderful night!

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November 26, 2013: The Heart and The Heavy Openings

Two years ago I created an image that shifted my work in a completely different direction. That image was The Heart and The Heavy.

The Heart and The Heavy
©2011 Heather Evans Smith

After two years of exploring emotion through imagery, the series was ready to show in its entirety. The first show was through the Durham Art Guild in the Goldenbelt Room 100 Gallery in Durham, NC. It was a beautiful space. Thank you Katie Seiz for your help in coordinating the show. It was an amazing night of meeting new faces and collectors. 

The Heart and The Heavy Opening in Durham, NC

I took it down the day the show ended and drove it the next day to Atlanta. Jennifer Schwartz of the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery and I worked tirelessly for two days to transform a raw space into a magical nook. I've never worked so hard! At one point I was balancing several large items while Jennifer balanced a large framed piece against a brick wall, both of us looking to each other for help. We were a little sweaty but pulled it together. The result was a magical space that reflected well the work's emotion.  If you missed the opening, the show is up at the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery until the end of the year. Thank you Jennifer!

The Heart and The Heavy opening in Atlanta.

I brought in props from some of the photographs.

Jennifer and I cleaned up nicely after two days of hard work. Thank you Jennifer!

Not only did I enjoy speaking to patrons about my work, but I loved hearing their interpretations as well. They certainly made me look at my work in a new way. Face to face engagement is so important and I am thankful for the opportunity to connect with viewers in two cities this fall.

Look for The Heart and The Heavy in Charlotte, NC at the MoNA Gallery this March and April. The opening reception will be on March 7th. Hope to see you there!

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October 2, 2013: The Heart and The Heavy Now On Exhibit

Life is full of stories – some deeply personal and specific, others universally relatable.  My story is beautiful and complicated and bittersweet and hard.  Life is just that way.  So are photographs.

The birth of my daughter was life-changing, but not in the way I expected.  Though there has been no greater joy for me, the responsibility of another life has proven to be at times a heavy load.  Thinking about this in a literal sense, I imagined a heavy home on my shoulders, yet held tightly with love – a burden and a joy, a challenge and a reprieve.  This became the first image in the series The Heart and the Heavy.

From there the stories evolved, just as my life has.  The genesis of an image comes from moments of life, like a still from an old movie. Movement and pain and the simple joys of being alive are frozen in time – a study of fictional worlds based in reality.  Compelled to shoot these stories, I am haunted for days and months until it is released in an image.  Telling someone’s tale in a world not quite like our own.

It has been almost two years since I shot the image that changed my focus and redirected me as an artist. That image, The Heart and The Heavy, became a catalyst for a new study and the exhibit by the same name. I am thrilled to have the work on display in somewhat of an southeast tour this fall and winter.

First up, the Durham Art Guild is presenting the show from October 1 - 28 at the Room 100 Gallery in the Golden Belt in Durham, NC. There will be a public reception on Friday, October 18th from 6-9 p.m.

Next stop on the tour is Atlanta. The Jennifer Schwartz Gallery and I will be creating a one-night only special event on November 1st from 6-9 p.m. at DEADRINGER [prints + projects] located at Studio LR-12 at The Goat Farm Arts Center (1200 Foster Street, Atlanta, GA 30318). Then catch the show for the remainder of the year in the Jennifer Schwartz Gallery.

The MoNA Gallery in Charlotte will host the show from March 7 - April 26, 2014, with the opening reception on March the 7th. MoNA Gallery is located at 1900 N. Brevard St., Charlotte, NC 28206.

I couldn't be happier to be sharing this body of work. I hope to see you there!

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August 8, 2013: The Junk of the Heart

Music inspires me daily. Most recently a song by The Cardigans sparked an idea. The song is called The Junk of the Heart. With just the title alone, I started to think about our hearts and the "junk" that makes us tick, love, hurt and live. Some of us can become locked up inside and only we have the key to open ourselves back up to one another.

The Junk of the Heart
© 2013 Heather Evans Smith

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May 24, 2013: Facade

My latest image, Facade, is from an idea that fell into place once the right location was discovered. I wanted to place the model in a natural backdrop, so submerged her surroundings would overtake her. Unsure of what this would be, I sketched out my idea and made a mental note of it (sometimes those mental notes can sit in my head for over a year).

Sitting on my porch one morning, I noticed my neighbors' rhododendron bushes had bloomed. I arranged the shoot within the next few days. The area wasn't big, but zooming in gave the location a wonderland appearance.

The pressure to keep up appearances will slowly engulf us.

Facade
© 2013 Heather Evans Smith Photography

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October 9, 2012: Id: The Object of Self

 I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.  -Frida Kahlo

Self-portraits have remained a constant in my photography. It started out as a way to experiment with new ideas. I was essentially the only model available. I joke that I am always around, know exactly what the photographer wants and do not complain (well, I still complain). But it has evolved into much more than that over the years.

Self-portraiture has become a means of therapy, a way to express emotions of myself or others around me. Also, as a way to place myself in a surreal world that doesn't quite exist in our reality. I found out over time that ultimately a picture with me in it becomes more personal than of any one else as the subject.

I am pleased to announce that I have 3 images in the Darkroom Gallery's current exhibition Id: The Object of Self.  My image The Heart and The Heavy was selected as Juror's Choice (by the amazing Cig Harvey). This was the first in a series I have been currently working on with the same name.

© 2012 Heather Evans Smith Photography / The Heart and The Heavy: Juror's Choice for the Id: Object of Self exhibition

The opening reception for the show is October 14 at 1 p.m. at their space in Essex Junction, Vermont. There will be a presentation/discussion led by photographer Polly Raine. If I lived even a fraction closer I would be there.

For more information on the Darkroom Gallery, please go to their website. You can preview and purchase the exhibition book online here.

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