Raymond Smith

Raymond Smith, born in Newark, New Jersey, received a B.A. in American Studies at Stetson University and went on to earn an M.A. and a M. Phil. from Yale University in the same field . While he did not study photography formally, he has had his work on exhibit in galleries and institutions nationally. For Smith, photography is inextricably linked to literature, especially to fiction. Even though his work has been influenced by photographers like Walker Evans and Robert Frank, writer Henry James has also had a profound impact on how he sees photography. He believes that photographs reveal a cross section of a tiny moment in a narrative. In freezing just that instant, a photograph can equal writing's power to describe and present a psychological portrait.