{"id":419196,"date":"2026-01-17T13:48:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T13:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419196\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T13:48:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T13:48:11","slug":"rodney-smith-photography-between-real-and-surreal-a-new-book-celebrates-a-master","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/419196\/","title":{"rendered":"“Rodney Smith: Photography between Real and Surreal,” a New Book, Celebrates a Master"},"content":{"rendered":"

Should you ever need to identify a work by the New York<\/a> photographer Rodney Smith, who lived from 1947 to 2016, look for these clues. First, his images of dreamlike whimsy are usually contained within a pleasing symmetry\u2014they\u2019re very Wes Anderson but in black and white. Next, his subjects resemble Charlie Chaplin<\/a> or characters out of a Frank Capra film\u2014they\u2019re often wearing hats\u2014yet they are placed in Hitchcockian situations: chased by airplanes (very North by Northwest) and inhabiting Magritte-like spaces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A double self-portrait by Smith, taken outside the Schoenbrunn Palace, in Vienna, 1998. <\/p>\n

All this is to say that Smith\u2014who primarily photographed with a 35-mm. Leica M4 before transitioning to a 120\/6×6 medium-format Hasselblad with an 80-mm. lens\u2014was both cinematic and architectural. Or so say the writer Susan Bright and the visual artist Anne Morin in a major new monograph, Rodney Smith: Photography Between Real and Surreal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Enter your e-mail to read the full story for free
and to receive our weekly e-mail newsletter<\/p>\n

\n Subscribe to AIR MAIL<\/a> for full access.\n <\/p>\n

\n Already a subscriber? Sign in here<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Should you ever need to identify a work by the New York photographer Rodney Smith, who lived from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[26448,220838,449,458,459,64,63,220839,63965,460,134,129575,220840,67854,128731,108386,220841,67852,1025,220842,215937,220843,220844,220845,220846,220847,220848,220849,220850,145450],"class_list":["post-419196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-alfred-hitchcock","tag-anne-morin","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bernadette-no-2","tag-charlie-chaplin","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-frank-capra","tag-groucho-marx","tag-hasselblad","tag-hitchcock","tag-john-singer-sargent","tag-leap-of-faith","tag-leica","tag-new-york","tag-north-by-northwest","tag-rene-magritte","tag-rodney-smith","tag-rodney-smith-photography-between-real-and-surreal","tag-singin-in-the-rain","tag-susan-bright","tag-the-1930s","tag-the-1960","tag-the-1990s","tag-the-2000s","tag-wes-anderson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}