Over the last decade, photography has turned away from the ideal of beauty, as it has turned away from the idea of crafting a singular artistic print. In reaction to Eggleston’s influence on a generation of photographers, I have created a body of classic color portraits that reflect a contemporary subject with a nod to the history of formal portraiture.  

Revisiting Beauty is inspired by portrait paintings from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, in particular, artists such as West, De La Roche, Stroganov, Sargent, Whistler, Hockney, and portraits created in the mid 1900’s by many anonymous painters. My own background in as a painter also informs this work. Revisiting Beauty captures girls between the ages of 14 – 17 on the cusp of womanhood not fully aware of their own loveliness and physical presence, revealing a tender age before they leave the familiar. Working with people I know and seeking to portray them with dignity and sensitivity, the subjects are photographed against a colorful backdrop completed with a landscape or environment I have captured, either in China or in California. The result is a more painterly approach to creating photographs yet allowing the shadows and earmarks of the photograph to be revealed. This series is part of a larger project examining connections of color, landscape, pose, and object to reconsider the formal expression of the photographic portrait and give a nod to classic painterly sensibilities.

​

For LaValise, these images are used in conjunction with scented vintage handkerchiefs to speak to the idea of beauty and olfactory receptors. The sense of smell plays an important role in the physiological effects of mood and stress, and certain scents can help heal a person’s mind, body, and soul. Studies stated that even a small amount of fragrance taken by respiration causes indirect physical effect by activating olfactory memory. In addition, the fragrance and the sense of smell are very important in the direction of human behavior.

​

​

ALINE SMITHSON is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, educator, and editor based in Los Angeles, California. Her practice examines the archetypal foundations of the creative impulse and she uses humor and pathos to explore the performative potential of photography. She received a BA in art from the University of California at Santa Barbara and was accepted into the College of Creative Studies, studying under significant California artist. After a decade-long career as a New York Fashion Editor, Smithson returned to Los Angeles and to her own artistic practice.

​

She has exhibited widely including over 50 solo shows at institutions such as the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, the San Jose Art Museum, the Shanghai, Lishui, and Pingyqo Festivals in China, The Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco, the Center of Fine Art Photography in Colorado, the Tagomago Gallery in Barcelona and Paris, and the Obscura Gallery in Santa Fe. In addition, her work is held in a number of public collections and her photographs have been featured in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, PDN, Communication Arts, Eyemazing, Real Simple, Los Angeles Magazine, Musee Magazine, Shots, Pozytyw, and Silvershotz magazines.

​

In 2007, Smithson founded LENSCRATCH, a photography journal that celebrates a different contemporary photographer each day. She has been the Gallery Editor for Light Leaks Magazine, a contributing writer for Diffusion, Don’t Take Pictures, Lucida, and F Stop Magazines, has written book reviews for photo-eye, and has provided the forewords for artist’s books by Tom Chambers, Meg Griffiths, Flash Forward 12, Robert Rutoed, Nancy Baron, among others. Smithson has curated and jurored exhibitions for a number of galleries, organizations, and on-line magazines, including Review Santa Fe, Critical Mass, Flash Forward, and the Griffin Museum. In addition, she is a reviewer and educator at many photo festivals across the United States. Smithson has been teaching at the Los Angeles Center of Photography since 2001and also teaches at a variety of institutions such as ICP, SFW, MMW, and others.

​

In 2012, Smithson received the Rising Star Award through the Griffin Museum of Photography for her contributions to the photographic community. In 2014 and 2019, Smithson’s work was selected for Critical Mass Top 50 and she received the Excellence in Teaching Award from CENTER.

​

In 2015, the Magenta Foundation published her retrospective monograph, Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography. In 2016, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum commissioned Smithson to create a series of portraits for the upcoming Faces of Our Planet Exhibition. In 2018 and 2019, Smithson was a finalist in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize and exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London. She was commissioned to create the book, LOST: Los Angeles for Kris Graves Projects which now sold out. Peanut Press released her monograph, Fugue State, in Fall 2021. Her books are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Museum, the Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim, among others. Smithson was honored as a 2022 Hasselblad Heroine. With the exception of her cell phone, she only shoots film. In 2024, the Los Angeles Center of Photography established the Aline Smithson Next Generation Award. With the exception on her iPhone, she only shoots film.