Ming Smith
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Object Details
- Date
- c. 1972
- Artist
- Anthony Barboza, born 10 May 1944
- Sitter
- Ming Smith, born 1947
- Exhibition Label
- Born Detroit, Michigan
- Ming Smith’s career as a fine art photographer has been marked by important firsts. When she joined the Kamoinge Workshop, the pathbreaking Black photographers’ collective in 1972, she was the group’s first (and only) woman member. Around that time, fellow Kamoinge member Anthony Barboza created this portrait. In 1979, when New York City’s Museum of Modern Art acquired two of her photographs, she became the first Black woman photographer to have work included in the museum’s collection.
- As a self-described product of the Black Arts Movement, Smith embraced an intuitive and often experimental working style to create sensitive images of Black life. Today, her work resonates with younger photographers, including Tyler Mitchell, whose portrait of Beyoncé became the first image by a Black photographer to appear on the cover of Vogue. Mitchell credits Smith’s influence, noting, “Her work shows me how to pull poetry and spirituality out of the mundane.”
- Nacida en Detroit, Michigan
- La carrera de Ming Smith como fotógrafa artística ha estado marcada por hitos importantes. Cuando en 1972 se unió al Taller Kamoinge, un revolucionario colectivo de fotógrafos negros, pasó a ser la primera (y única) mujer en el grupo. Hacia esa época, Anthony Barboza, colega suyo en Kamoinge, le hizo este retrato. En 1979, cuando el Museo de Arte Moderno de Nueva York adquirió dos de sus fotografías, pasó a ser la primera mujer fotógrafa negra con obra en la colección del museo.
- Smith, quien se consideraba producto del Movimiento de Arte Negro, adoptó un estilo de trabajo intuitivo y experimental para crear sensibles imágenes de la vida en las comunidades afroamericanas. Hoy su obra tiene eco en fotógrafos más jóvenes como Tyler Mitchell, cuyo retrato de Beyoncé fue la primera imagen de un fotógrafo negro en la portada de Vogue. Mitchell reconoce la influencia de Smith: “Su trabajo me enseña a descubrir la poesía y la espiritualidad en lo cotidiano”.
- Place
- United States\New York\Kings\New York
- Topic
- Ming Smith: Female
- Ming Smith: Visual Arts\Artist\Photographer
- Portrait
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Exhibition
- Recent Acquisitions 2023
- On View
- NPG, North Gallery 140
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; this acquisition received support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum
- Data Source
- National Portrait Gallery
- Object number
- NPG.2022.165
- Type
- Photograph
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Copyright
- © Anthony Barboza
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions
- Image: 12.2 × 18.1 cm (4 13/16 × 7 1/8")
- Sheet: 20.2 × 25.4 cm (7 15/16 × 10")
- Metadata Usage
- Usage conditions apply
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.2022.165