Beuford Smith
*Beuford Smith was born on April 12, 1936. He was a Black photographer and educator.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, his father, Theodore Smith, worked as a porter, and his mother, Beulah Conner Smith, managed the household. Smith was an only child. He developed an interest in photography at a young age and taught himself photography.
His early interest in photography was sparked by encountering Roy DeCarava's images in The Sweet Flypaper of Life. This moment of inspiration prompted Smith to pursue photography seriously, eventually leading him to New York City, where he immersed himself in the vibrant and politically charged art scene.
By the time he was twenty-seven years old, he became a member of the Kamoinge Workshop. This was a collective founded by a group of photographers in 1963, including Beuford Smith. This was a workshop to collaborate with photographers and help each other with their different styles of taking photos. Smith also served as president of the group, helping to shape its mission of truth-telling, cultural authenticity, and creative integrity. The collective stood as a groundbreaking model of collaborative artistic practice, particularly during an era when mainstream institutions often marginalized Black photographers. Smith's work with Kamoinge connected him to figures and other contemporaries who profoundly influenced his photographic approach, one marked by empathy, subtlety, and formal clarity.
By 1966, Smith had launched his career as a freelance photographer, and two years later, he expanded his practice to include cinematography. Throughout the decades, he has worked on both personal and commercial projects, photographing for high-profile clients such as Black Star, AT&T, Emory University, Merrill Lynch, Avon, and General Electric. His commitment to socially engaged photography led to the founding of The Black Photographers Annual in 1973, working alongside artist editor Shawn Walker and publisher Joe Crawford. The publication became a vital platform for showcasing the work of Black photographers such as Vance Allen, Ray Francis, Anthony Barboza, and Ming Smith at a national level, pushing back against exclusionary practices in the art world and advocating for the visibility of diverse Black experiences.
In addition to his editorial and freelance work, Smith founded the Cesaire Photo Agency and taught photography in workshops and at Cooper Union, New Muse, the Brooklyn Museum, PAL, and Hunter College. He has been published in many magazines, exhibition catalogs, and photography annuals. Its emotional depth and technical restraint characterized Smith's photographic style. Smith's series capturing the grief and tension in the Black community following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. remains one of his most compelling bodies of work. Other notable series include dynamic portrayals of jazz musicians' mid-performance—often blurred by movement and highlighted by dramatic lighting—and street scenes layered with symbols of patriotism and heritage, such as flags and public iconography. His contributions to photography have been recognized with numerous awards and fellowships.
His work is included in the permanent collections such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The New York Public Library, Princeton University, The Schomburg Center, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Baltimore Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The Detroit Institute of Arts, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others. Smith's legacy is one of passion, integrity, and cultural affirmation. As he stated in the 2013 Kamoinge publication Timeless, "I photograph as passionately and humanely as possible."
Through decades of unwavering commitment to documenting Black life with empathy and clarity, Smith has earned his place as one of the most important visual chroniclers of the African American experience in the 20th and 21st centuries. Beuford Smith died in 2025 after a battle with cancer.
