Ming Smith never set out to be a professional photographer.
She majored in pre-med in college and moved to New York to start a career as a successful model.
Through it all, her camera was at her eye.
“It became my best friend,” Smith said. “Photography was always there. It was my sense of truth.”
Her truth included portraits of icons of Black life such as James Baldwin and Grace Jones, a host of leading musicians like Tina Turner, as well as everyday life in marginalized communities in Harlem, Coney Island and other areas.
She was invited to join Komoinge, the famed photography cooperative formed out of the Black arts and civil rights movements.
And the significance of her work led to two of her pieces being acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, a first ever for an African American woman.
Now, the International Center of Photography has honored Smith with its prestigious 2023 Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Throughout Smith’s success as a model, a dancer and a photographer, her motivation hasn’t remained the same.
“My work is about shedding light on Black culture,” she said. “It's about the continuation of my ancestry and honoring that.”
Images from Ming Smith
Extras from Ming Smith's Interview
Prints
Related Links
Credits
Special Thanks: Mingus Smith, Alexandria Watson, Caroline Vigneron, Stephanie Adams and David E. Little
This film was made possible with the generous support of Harbers Studios.
2023 ICP Infinity Awards Recipients
About the ICP Infinity Awards
Since 1985, the International Center of Photography has recognized outstanding achievements in photography with its prestigious Infinity Awards. The awards ceremony is also ICP’s primary fundraising benefit, with its revenues assisting the center's various programs.
Harbers Studios commissioned MediaStorm, on behalf of ICP, to create a short film about each of the recipients to screen at the awards ceremony and to display online. The films pay tribute to the contributions of each artist to the craft and field of photography and demonstrate ICP's commitment to them.
As a privately funded nonprofit arts and education organization, ICP depends in large part on friends such as you for support. Your generosity is vital to ICP as it continues to grow and succeed in its mission: to present photography's extraordinary power to the public.
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