Leslie Smolan
Leslie Smolan is Executive Director of the Rodney Smith Estate and co-founder of Carbone Smolan Agency. Renowned for her pursuit of timeless beauty and design excellence, she has received AIGA’s lifetime Medal of Achievement. Smolan is internationally recognized for her distinctive aesthetic and meticulous detailing, having worked with prestigious brands including the Louvre Museum, High Museum, Christie’s, Morgan Stanley, and Mandarin Oriental Hotels. She collaborated with photographer Rodney Smith for thirty years as both creative partner and wife, and now dedicates herself to preserving and expanding his artistic legacy.
Rodney Lewis Smith (1947–2016)
An American photographer whose magical images blur the line between dreams and reality. The sophisticated compositions and stylish characters in his extraordinary pictures exist in the timeless world of his imagination. Born in New York City, Smith started out as a photo essayist, turned to portraiture, and found his niche, and greatest success, in fashion photography. Inspired by W. Eugene Smith, taught by Walker Evans, and devoted to the techniques of Ansel Adams, Smith was driven by the dual ideals of technical mastery and pure beauty. Photography was Smith’s way of seeing himself through others. Although born to privilege, his difficult parental relationship led him to seek connection elsewhere. Whether soulful portraits of religious pilgrims, powerful CEOs, or ethereal models, his ability to connect with his subjects and convey a human narrative is exquisitely rendered on film. His perfectly composed images, shot on location, belie the spontaneity of his process. Smith transforms our chaotic world into a place of tranquility and order and elicits a smile by helping us recognize our shared humanity. In an age saturated with images, his photographs remain unforgettable — witty, elegant, and quietly profound.
I met Rodney Smith in 1987. The timing was serendipitous. I was a 35 year-old designer and Rodney was a 40 year-old photographer. I instantly fell in love with his talent (falling in love with the man would come shortly afterwards). His pictures were remarkable and unlike any other photographer I’d ever worked with. The photographs excited me, and inspired me, and they still do. Rodney Smith passed away in 2016 at the age of 68. My dream is for everyone to be as moved by his photographs as I am. To that end, the Estate of Rodney Smith is committed to keeping his legacy alive, and sharing his vision of the world with humor, grace and optimism.
1973 Receives Theology degree from Yale Divinity School while also studying photography under Walker Evans. Contributing associate of Magnum Photos.
1976 Receives a grant from the Jerusalem Foundation to serve as a fellow at Mishkenot Sha’ananim, Jerusalem to photograph the people of Israel.
1977 – 1984 Photographs in the Mississippi Delta, Wales. the American South, and France. .
1985 Resident fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Teaches at the International Center of Photography, New York; the Maine Photographic Workshops, Rockport; and the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, New Mexico.
1987 Enters the commercial photography world with an award-winning annual report for the H. J. Heinz Company, shooting environmental portraits of international CEOs.
1991 – 2000 Shoots editorial and fashion assignments for The New York Times Magazine, Time Magazine, Departures, Bloomberg, Vanity Fair and Real Simple.
2002 Begins to shoot color film and make color prints.