Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography
Photographs by Aline Smithson. Introduction by Paula Tognarelli. Foreword by Karen Sinsheimer.
Magenta Foundation, 2015. 208pp., 130 illustrations. 11 x 12 in.

Publisher’s Description

This is the first published monograph of Aline Smithson’s work.

Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography is an almost 20-year culmination of portrait photographs captured by award-winning photographer Aline Smithson. Beginning with her early forays into black and white work, produced as darkroom silver gelatin prints, she photographed the world around her considering the poignancy of childhood and the pathos of aging and relationships. The book continues with her hand painted photographs featuring her defining series, Arrangement in Green and Black: Portrait of the Photographer’s Mother, where she combines humor and family to create a universal expression of motherhood. The book is completed by her color projects that revisit beauty, the essence of childhood, and an examination of created realities. Aline brings a background in painting and fashion to her images, but at the heart of her work is her ability to recognize the inner self of her subjects. The photographer considers all her portraits a reflection of herself and the stories she wants to tell, and in that way, she has created a visual language that is her own unique autobiography.

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