After a career as a New York Fashion Editor, Aline Smithson is now represented by galleries in the U.S. and Europe and published throughout the world. She has exhibited widely including numerous solo and group exhibitions around the globe and her work is held in a number of public collections. Her photographs have been featured in publications including PDN, the PDN Photo Annual, Communication Arts Photo Annual, Eyemazing, Soura, Visura, Fraction, Artworks, Diffusion, Rangefinder, Lenswork Extended, Shots, Pozytyw, and Silvershotz magazines. In 2014, Aline received the Excellence in Teaching Award by CENTER and her work was selected for the Critical Mass Top 50 Portfolios. In 2012, Aline was recognized with the Rising Star Award through the Griffin Museum of Photography for her contributions to the photographic community. Aline founded and writes the blogzine, Lenscratch, that celebrates a different contemporary photographer each day and offers opportunity for exhibition. She curates and jurors exhibitions for a number of galleries, organizations, and on-line magazines. In addition, she is a reviewer at many photo festivals across the United States. She lives and works in Los Angeles and is a founding member of the Six Shooter Collective. Today we share Aline’s series People I Don’t Know.
People I Don’t Know
“I continue to be fascinated with found photographs. For years I have collected photographs found on the ground. Recently I have been drawn to more formal portraits culled from dusty cardboard boxes in thrift stores or old suitcases at flea markets. There in an innate sadness connected to these photographs. Who are they? What were their stories? How did these photographs end up unloved, not with their families, discarded?
I decided to give the people in these photographs a chance to be vital again, to be seen and considered part of our collective whole. In order to infuse life into the images, I asked someone of the same gender and approximately the same age to hold the photograph, leaving room for the viewer to connect the living to those who have passed on. Psychologically, we attach the face in the photograph to the body that holds it, creating a new relationship.
I feel a quiet satisfaction that these people that I don’t know are again appreciated, held and recognized with dignity.”
To view more of Aline’s work please visit her website.