ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Colby Smith began taking photographs with his father's Exacta camera when he was 11 years-old. He bought his first camera -- a Nikkormat -- when he was 14. His images have always centered around composition and the density of light. Light, after all, is all that we can see.
In Colby's view, the planet we inhabit is a beautiful composition of rock, water and the life they support. His landscapes focus on these elements, with perhaps an emphasis on the rock -- whether it is the most majestic mountain, the finest sand or the stoneworks humans make from them. Photography is Colby's expression of loyalty to earth.
Colby's technique has evolved over time. He began in an analog world and loved taking images on film and working them to completion in the darkroom. He favored his Zone VI 4x5 camera for many years. But the digital world caught up and now he is committed to his Hasselblad X2D and the ways in which Photoshop outdoes his skills in the darkroom. He prints his images on an Epson SC9000 using Ultrachrome inks and Hahnemuhle media.