Interview with Tim Smith

Tim Smith recently received the National Newspaper Award for his portrait of Hutterite children skipping down a pyramid of bales underneath a painted sky. It's a big step for the Winnipeg native, who as a child used to snap photos of his friends in action with a camera he inherited from his parents (he later upgraded to a Pentax MZ50). Smith documented every moment he and his friends shared, from Tarzaaning across creeks to skateboarding. They were awful, awful pictures, but I enjoyed it says Smith, who has since made a successful career of snapping special moments in people's daily lives.

		PHOTOGRAPHER Tim Smith Tim Smith, 32, lives in Brandon, Man. with his wife Natalie and seven-year-old son Huxley, with whom he carries on the old-school fun of fort-building, camping and tobogganing. A graduate of Victoria's Western Academy of Photography, he's been in the industry for eight years. Photography can be a frustrating animal at times, he finds. But getting paid to take pictures? It's hard to complain about that!' To see more of Smith's photos, flip through the October 2011 issue of Canadian Geographic, visit his website or check out his contribution to the Rogue Collective, a group of like-minded photographers who produce commercial and editorial photography.(Photo: Natalie Percy)
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Q How did you get into the industry?

AEditorial photography was definitely a jumping-off point for me my portfolio was very newspaper-based, with lots of botany, daily life and feature stuff. As I've figured out where I fit into photography and what I'm interested in, it's tailored my portfolio.

These days I'm really interested in documentary-style photography of simple daily life. I kind of like being out here in the prairies and doing my own thing, documenting aspects of life that people don't see as often small town life, farming, etc. I've been working on a project in the Hutterite communities for over two years now, gaining access to these remote communities. They tell a different story of Canadian life.

Q What can city-dwellers learn from these communities?

AI've learned the power of community and simplicity [from the Hutterites.] It's just amazing how self-reliant they are. They could be completely cut off from the outside world.

AI grew up in cities and I love cities. I'm not saying small town or rural life is better in any way; it's just different. I'm surprised by how many Canadians don't know about things around the corner from them. They don't realize just how vibrant the communities around them are. So I'm just interested in showing different aspects of that.

QWhat theme, story or message are you trying to get through in your photography?

AI'm mostly concerned in leaving my preconceptions behind. I try to let the photos tell their own story, and I try not to lead the photos in a specific direction. I let them and the subject tell the story. Ultimately it's their story; I'm just documenting it.

With the project on the Hutterite colony, the focus has really changed over time. I have themes I like to work within in terms of their growing reliance on technology. But I really let the photos take me there and I try not to guide it too much.

In farming and technology, [the Hutterites] are sort of the leaders in agriculture, so it's an interesting dichotomy. The Hutterites are very forward-thinking, using technology to make work flow better. But at the same time they have to balance that with their spiritual beliefs, [that is], without letting in too much of the outside world.

QYour portfolio ranges from Cuba to the prairies. That's quite a range. What do those places have in common?

AThe locations are different, but I look for the same thing in both. Cuba is such a beautiful country in terms of the people; everybody is outside doing something. These days in the prairies, it's harder and harder to find kids outside exploring nature, tying rope swings over creeks and things like that. But in Cuba it's happening all around you. The tying in is the same I just look for people living their daily lives, whether that be on the prairies or in Cuba. I go there with the same eye for what I'm looking for. It just happens to be a very different environment.

Interview by Ruth VanDyken