Randolph Community College’s Photography Department and the American Society of Media Photographers-North Carolina are hosting a 40-year retrospective of the work of Greensboro photographer Rick Smith beginning in January. An opening reception of “Still Hanging In There - A Forty Year Retrospective” will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 12, in the Photography Imaging Center at RCC’s Asheboro Campus. The exhibit will remain up until Feb. 29.
“Rick has been an advocate and supporter of the RCC photography program for decades,” said Chuck Egerton, department head for Photographic Technology. “He has donated photography equipment and time for student workshops.” As part of the Jan. 12 opening, Smith is donating signed original unframed prints for $20 each with all proceeds going to the Photography Challenge Fund of the RCC Foundation.
After attending Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif., Smith returned home to his native Michigan and began what he calls “my real education into the photo biz.” That was the experience of working in one of the largest and busiest studios in the Detroit area, first as a photographer’s assistant and later as studio manager overseeing the daily activities of a staff of more than 20. Smith says, “I wouldn’t take a million dollars for that education.”
In the 1970s, he and the family moved to North Carolina where he owned and operated a commercial advertising photography studio for more than 25 years working with such clients as Eastman Kodak, IBM, Remington Arms, Farm Rich, McDonald’s, the U.S. Treasury Dept., The National Archives, and the U.S Marine Corp.
After closing the studio in 1999, he continued to do commercial work on a limited basis, however spending more time exploring and creating his personal work.
Smith has won numerous regional and national awards for his work including his personal favorite, selected for inclusion in Professional Visions, 40th Anniversary Exhibit of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) at Photokina in Cologne, Germany. He is also included in a permanent collection at the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y. (one of only 100 images selected from over 27,000 submittals), and has lectured at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) College of Photographic Art. He is also a regular lecturer, workshop leader, and contributor in the Randolph Community College Photographic Technology program.
RCC’s Asheboro Campus is located at 629 Industrial Park Avenue. Take the McDowell Road exit off Highway 220 Bypass (I-73/I-74), just south of the interchange with Highways 64 and 49, and follow the signs. For more information, contact Chuck Egerton at 336-633-0283 or e-mail caegerton@randolph.edu.
