Kelly Smith
"It wasn’t until I was sixteen that I realized just how important the role of photography played in my life. I was in a film photography class my high school offered at the time – most students used it as a study hall and hardly paid any mind to the darkroom unless they absolutely needed to for an assignment. Through the angst and constant search for identity that goes along with being sixteen, I found solace in those 45 minutes a day I spent developing film."
"Analyzing my photographs, the excitement of seeing a freshly fixed roll of film come out of the tank filled with perfect exposures and plenty of mistakes, processing and printing my favorites repeatedly until the tone was just right—I fell in love with the art, and with the mental silence it gave me. I found myself immensely looking forward to those 45 minutes each day, staying late after school just to spend more time in the darkroom and browse books of the greats, and feeling oddly connected to the smell of developing chemicals lingering on my skin."
"My parents were extremely supportive of me, but nervous. Apart from my Aunt who practiced photojournalism while she was in the military and my Uncle who is a kickass illustrator, I come from a family of people with much more logical brains than creative careers. My father is an accountant, my mother is a teacher, my brother works in finance and my sister is nearly finished her graduate degree in Audiology. So when I crawled out of wherever I came from and said, “Hey Mom and Dad, I’d like to take photos for a living,” they simply told me to do whatever makes me happy, which this clearly did, but that they knew absolutely nothing about the photography industry, or if I could even make a living…and neither did I."
"Having no solid information about my dream of becoming a photographer other than blogs loaded with inspiring phrases like “the field’s not what it used to be” and “no one values good photography anymore”, I chose to attend a large university rather than an art school, so I could have a more “logical” major to fall back on if necessary. So I settled into a double major in Creative Advertising and Photography at the University of Miami, and thus began four years of the highest emotional highs I’d ever felt, the lowest lows I ever hope to feel, and very, very little sleep."
"My advertising major suited me extremely well, because it allowed me to explore my interest in human behavior, and create things that connected with people according to what I found. It was also through this major that I discovered my deep appreciation for branding."
"My aforementioned interest in psychology has me constantly analyzing my own behavior and that of others – I’m fascinated by human connection and emotion. I’ve learned to see a brand as I see a person: I like to push through the surface level of “this is how I want to appear” to reach the core of “this is who I am” and find out the way they aspire to be. For a brand, if there is a disconnect between identity and aspiration, I find ways to alter their interactions and communication to narrow that gap and form more meaningful connections in the process."
"In September of my Junior year at UM, I was working as the Photo Editor for Distraction Magazine, our on-campus lifestyle publication. I had just photographed the print editorial for our fall issue: an americana-themed swimwear spread, when Miami swimwear boutique Nic Del Mar contacted our Fashion Editor to request that we work as a team to develop their lookbooks. As two twenty-year-old girls with no paid experience, we predictably leapt at the chance. Ana and I worked together with Nic Del Mar until she graduated in Spring of 2013, and I continued with them until my own graduation the next year. As a young, aspiring commercial photographer, the ladies of Nic Del Mar put their faith in me to help propel their brand forward - it’s amazing to look back at the mistakes we made, the things we created, and the way we grew together during those first jobs of my fledgling freelance career."
"I began my job as the photographer for United By Blue one week after I graduated from the University of Miami. I happily packed my bags and drove up the coast, back home to the land of hills and winter - knowing I was making a huge leap in leaving my developing freelance career in the swimwear industry for a virtually nonexistent one in the outdoor industry. But I knew it was what I wanted long-term, and if you can’t take a career risk at age 22, when can you? It’s amazing to see how much both the company’s images and my personal images have changed since I’ve started here. Working with a company whose personality, aesthetic and values so closely parallel my own has undoubtedly helped to define my personal and freelance work."
"My greatest influence is in the patterns and light of every day. I’m always fascinated by the visual ebb and flow of the world around me - in nature, in architecture, in the way people go about their daily business - and I’m constantly observing and trying to absorb life in the most purposeful way I can."
"I plan to continue the work I’ve been building since my move to Philadelphia in 2014, for freelance clients, personal projects and United By Blue. I began to experiment in film last summer and I’d like to explore that a bit more and possibly do some narrative work over the next year. Talking about the future is always difficult for me, since I’ve learned just how hard it is to predict, but I’ll keep rolling with the punches and moving forward in what feels right as it greets me."