On Sept. 19, globally renowned photographer and artist Ming Smith visited Kenyon to present some of her pieces at her Jazz Requiem — Notations in Blue exhibition. “My photograph is an attempt to open the passageway to my understanding of myself,” Smith said.  She is the first Black woman photographer to have her work featured in the Museum of Modern Art. 

An impressionistic chronicler of Black cultural life, Smith’s photographs of street scenes, musicians and churches capture the movement and atmosphere of her subjects in swirls and blurs of light. At the same time, Smith is devoted to appreciating the elements of nature and more intimate moments among individuals. She frequently shoots in dark places — jazz clubs and streets at night — using a slow shutter speed and no flash. Smith’s techniques include playing with focus, double exposure, the incorporation of cutouts or fragments of her photographs and painting on prints.

While Smith listened to the speeches delivered by fellow artists and colleagues, she was compelled to pull out her phone to take even more photos. Instead of explaining her work, she allowed her photographs to speak for themselves as she walked through The Gund and silently observed the space.

Her photograph titled “Romance Man” shows a male figure in a close, intimate pose, evoking a sense of tenderness or longing. The composition has soft lighting and muted colors, conveying themes of love, longing and introspection. “Time out at the Louvre” showcases an elderly woman’s moment of reflection and pause within the grand setting of the Louvre Museum. This photograph, like much of Smith’s work, intertwines personal narrative with cultural commentary, inviting viewers to reflect on their own experiences in art and history.

Smith was accompanied at the opening reception of the exhibition by two new community members, who spoke about her work’s impact. The speakers were Assistant Professor of American Studies John Rufo, as well as poet and author Jasmine Gibson. Rufo reminisced on his home in Philadelphia, which was situated in a very musical neighborhood. “We lived up and across Broad Street from a free jazz club called Solar Myth and down from a more old-fashioned jazz venue named Chris’ Jazz Cafe and by a diagonal from the north end of South Street and Center City where there was Bob and Barbara’s Lounge, one of the oldest gay bars in the city and in the country where bar bands led by an elderly organist wailed until 2 a.m.,” Rufo recalled. “And when you entered our tiny Trinity house, the first item to catch your eye was a Ming Smith photograph, the cover of her 2020 [An] Aperture Monograph. The photograph was how I knew that I had arrived back into the welcoming center, so to speak, the vestibule of the music. So when Jasmine and I turned up here this past July and we came upon The Gund and saw this fabulous spread of Miss Ming Smith’s work, it felt like coming home.”

Gibson delivered her closing remarks by capturing Smith’s true and raw passion for the production of art and photography in a single sentence: “She finds herself; she comes home. Home is where the shutter is. Goodbye to flesh, return to soul. Become icon; embody the flash of spear.”