Ken Smith is a professional photographer specializing in distinctive color and black & white Northern California landscapes, portraits, still life and narrative imagery. Photography is Ken Smith’s overriding passion. His photographs demonstrate his breadth of experience and a strong personal aesthetic. His mastery of art and technique extends to all his design and building ventures including theatrical scenery, a sailboat, a racecar and a house. And he plays a mean blues guitar. An early adopter of the digital camera, Ken perfects his craft in step with his vision. He selects and interprets what he sees through his own straightforward style. In the classic photographic tradition, he uses the tools of the computer like a darkroom to enhance a fundamentally clear point of view. Each finished photograph is printed on elegant archival paper Rather than traditional black and white, he prefers infrared for landscape photography. The infrared spectrum is unseen by the human eye, but can be captured with a modified digital camera. The infrared image may evoke a visual interpretation of reality but, in fact, reveals a dream-like, ethereal parallel universe. Though the photographic methods are similar, infrared photography challenges the preconceptions of traditional photography.
