| John Mathew Smith |
Q. Bishop Desmond Tutu described your work as
"Quite Beautiful Pictures"
What was the occasion that allowed you to shoot him?
JMS. Well with a Beautiful person as Bishop Tutu a
Beautiful photo is easy, Grace is in his every move and
his smile is in the gleam of his eyes.
I have been fortunate to see him many times...the time
at the South African Embassy is my favorite. A friend
and I arrived early before event began...I watched as
the good bishop descended the stairs to our awaiting
group....I watched as he grabbed his glasses...and I so
wanted to take his portrait before he had a chance to
put them on. I don’t like Images with glasses...but I
would never have asked him to take them off...so I
quickly shot over someone’s shoulder and it turned out
a beauty, In fact I used that technique often after that
learning that a great way to obtain candid images was
to shoot over shoulders in meet an greet situations.
Q. When and where did you photograph Mother
Teresa?
JMS. Well of all places...twice in Baltimore,once in
Washington and once in Frederick M.D.
Frankly every time I saw her, It made me cry. Seeing
her always put things into perspective, here we were
racing around...with our daily lives taking photos...etc
and "there she was" The most worthwhile human being
that God had created in the last century. She has only
one equal in our lifetime that I was also fortunate to
photograph, Nelson Mandela
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Celebrating Artist & Upstarts
| Frankly every time I saw her, It made me cry. Seeing her always put things into perspective, here we were racing around...with our daily lives taking photos...etc and "there she was" The most worthwhile human being that God had created in the last century. |