Project Statement:
We live in a world full of technical distractions. I see my children gather around computers as though itʼs a summer campfire, faces aglow, as they peer into a world of friends and fantasy, participating in a new forms of play that further removes them from the childhood that I experienced.
Todayʼs generation has lost touch with the activities that previous generations have enjoyed: reading a good book in a comfortable chair, playing board games on a rainy day, constructing paper doll fantasies, or sprawling out on the living room rug while listening to records and reading the backs of album covers.
And itʼs because of this that I have been looking at untouched childhood pursuits with a new eye.
With great sadness, I realize that these objects will someday be obsolete, at least in their current incarnations. And like a curator of antiquities, I see them now as beautiful objects to be admired and preserved, if only on film.
I can only hope for rain—a heavy rain—and maybe a power outage.
Artist Bio:
Aline Smithson is a photographic artist and educator. She is also the founder and editor in chief of Lenscratch. She curates and juries exhibitions for a number of galleries, organizations, and on-line magazines. In addition, she is a reviewer and workshop instructor at many photo festivals across the United States. In 2014, Aline received the Excellence in Teaching Award by CENTER, and her work was selected for the Critical Mass Top 50 Portfolios, Review Santa Fe, and the PDN Photo Annual. In 2012, Aline was recognized with the Rising Star Award through the Griffin Museum of Photography for her contributions to the photographic community.
After a career as a New York fashion editor, Aline is now represented by galleries in the U.S. and Europe, and has been published throughout the world. She has exhibited widely, including numerous solo and group exhibitions and her work is held in a number of public collections. Her photographs have been featured in publications including The New York Times, PDN, The New Yorker, Communication Arts, Eyemazing, Visura, Diffusion, Rangefinder, Lenswork, Shots and Silvershotz magazines. In 2015, she released a retrospective monograph, Self and Others, published by the Magenta Foundation. Aline lives and works in Los Angeles.
