Bio
Bio
Nathan Smith is an artist, writer, and critic whose practice engages questions of representation and power within visual culture. He is currently a junior in the BFA Photography program at the Fashion Institute of Technology, with minors in Fashion History, Theory, and Culture; Ethics and Sustainability; and English with a specialization in Writing. He has exhibited at FIT’s Art and Design Gallery and the Monad Gallery, held an editorial internship position at the Potomac Review, and has contributed to various creative projects as creative director, lead designer, and videographer for music artists, retail brands, and social events.
Nathan’s experience in branding, fashion, and editorial review has informed a critical eye that bridges technique, theory, and a commitment to ethics in visual culture. In turn, his unique point of view has positioned him to critique these industries from within, leading to a shift in focus from advertising to fine art and academia. He aims to contribute to contemporary thought at the intersection of visual media and cultural criticism.
Artist Statement
Artist Statement
My photographic work lingers in ambiguity, concealing subjects from capture. A battle with legibility primarily dictates the form of my images. Presence and absence, light and dark, are pitted against each other in a dialectical struggle with the Imperial gaze. Abstracted figures and partial visibility become the defining visual residue. Subjects sit at ambiguous spatial depths within minimal, clean compositions—their bodies sculpted by soft light and deep contrasts. Yet, a darkness that lies unseen, beneath the muted palettes of skin and fabric, is often the first to be felt. This darkness is essential, for it is the void in which light emerges—a wound within the body of humanity that creates the conditions for pain and pleasure.
With that, my work can be understood as an extension of Fred Moten’s notion of “Fugitivity,” referencing the creativity inherent to Blackness as a means to evade the panopticon that is White, Western society, while maintaining that Blackness is the sum zero (or surplus) against which all of society is measured.
With fashion and beauty centered, my images uncover the ties between the Imperial gaze, the fashion and beauty industries as vehicles for capitalism, and the ontological and structural dominance produced by Western modernity over the Black body. This approach situates my photography within the discourse of visual thinkers such as Susan Sontag, John Berger, and Nicholas Mirzoeff in addressing the power of visual culture and the resistance that can be found within it.
My work questions the future. Is it possible to build ethical imagery of Blackness against the backdrop of globalized neoliberalism? The decolonial and postcapitalistic desires layered into this question dwell within the shadows of my subjects. The line is blurred between erasure and evasion. What would happen if the darkness disappeared?