This is a photograph of me with my Leica and 25mm lens.
Luther Smith was born in rural Tishomingo County, Mississippi. He spent his first ten years there on a cotton farm and attended school in Dennis. In 1960 he moved to Aurora, Illinois as part of the great migration of people from the South to the industrial North. He grew-up went to grade school, junior high and high school in Aurora.
He attended the University of Illinois where he learned photography, first from the photographers at the student newspaper, The Daily Illini, and then from Bart Parker, Art Sinsabaugh and Robbert Flick, all great teachers.
Because of the encouragement from his teachers he applied to graduate school and attended Rhode Island School of Design. Where he studied with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. He also learned from the many good photography students with a variety of styles who were at RISD.
When school was finished he worked for a short time in a color lab. This began his interest in color in photography. Most of the work until this time was in black and white silver gelatin photographs.
His first teaching job was back at the University of Illinois. He was hired at the last minute before school started when they could not find someone to replace Reed Estabrook who had taken a job at U of Northern Iowa. He taught there for nine great years. He met and married his wife, artist Pat Chisholm, there.
In 1983 he moved to Fort Worth, Texas to take a position at Texas Christian University.
You can see images from his different bodies of work at his website; luthersmith.us
You always had a passion for photography and were willing to put yourself in harm’s way to capture an image.
However, it is fun to learn that chance played a role in your personal and professional future. So, whatever happened to Reed Estabrook?
I look forward to your future posts.
Reed was at U of Northern Iowa for some time. He now teaches at San Jose State in California. I spent some time with him when we were in San Francisco a few years back. I am thrilled that you are looking at my work.