Ming Smith

Ming Smith (b, Detroit, Michigan) documents everyday moments through her ethereal and transcendent vision, combining a deliberate blurriness with experimental post-production techniques including double exposed prints, collage, and painting, amplifying the works’ dream-like qualities.

Smith was the first Black female photographer acquired by the Museum of Modern Art and the first female member of the influential Black photography collective, Kamoinge. She was one of the first African American women to break the color barrier in modeling alongside Grace Jones and Toukie Smith. Gordon Parks wrote of Smith, stating her “wonderous imagery… gives eternal life to things that might well have been forgotten.” Her works respond to the struggles of city living, while also celebrating the community and pride produced by it. Taking her camera with her as she travelled the world, these images are a chronicle of her discerning eye.

Ming Smith’s previous group exhibitions include: Museum of Modern Art’s “Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography’; Brooklyn Museum of Art’s “We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85”; Smart Museum’s “Down Time: On the Art of Retreat”. Smith was featured in the traveling exhibitions: “Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power” opening at Tate Modern, and traveled to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Broad, de Young Museum and Museum of Fine Arts Houston; and “Arthur Jaffa: A Series of Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions”, commencing at The Serpentine Gallery, London. Smith is currently in “Working Together: Louis Draper and the Kamoinge Workshop” which began at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, and Cincinnati Art Museum. In 2023, The Museum of Modern Art opened a solo exhibition of Smith's work entitled Projects: Ming Smith.

Smith is the recent recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Center of Photography. She was awarded the 2021 Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In November 2020, Ming Smith released her book, Ming Smith: An Aperture Monograph. Smith’s work is in museum collections including the National Gallery of Art, J. Paul Getty Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. We won the 2019 Frieze New York Stand Prize with our presentation of her work. Smith is a graduate of Howard University. She lives and works in New York City.