Pathways: A Journey Through the Innovative Images of Acclaimed Photographer G.B. Smith

by G.B. Smith

G.B. Smith’s book, PATHWAYS takes the viewer through a journey of each image, using light to illuminate patterns and distilling the subject down to its uncluttered form. This innovative approach transcends a wide range of subjects and genres and reflects his traditional photographic heritage of plate cameras and exclusively black-and-white imagery. The joy of his imagery is in fact deeply embedded in his ability to present the canvas in its essential form. His images bring solace to our psyche constantly overwhelmed by the overstimulation of color, and they encourage us to appreciate the essence of the subject in a new and releasing way. Out of less comes more in this gorgeously produced volume. PATHWAYS is also a metaphor for the photographer’s personal artistic journey that began almost fifty years ago as a teenager and has taken a somewhat circuitous route, coming back full circle to embrace his original photographic passions. The book features selected works from several of G.B. Smith’s current collections, including many of his more recent award-winning images. All of the author’s proceeds are being donated to The Breast Cancer Alliance charity.

Genres: Photography, Art

134 pages, Hardcover

Published November 7, 2023

About the author

Born in the industrial heartland of England, G. B. Smith began his photographic passage almost fifty years ago as a teenager in apprenticeship of traditional film techniques in both the darkroom and with large plate cameras. The simplicity and deliberateness of his images today reflect the mindfulness of this traditional approach, manifested in modern digital technology.

In a world dominated by color that invades all of our senses G.B.Smith has inversely grown up with extreme color blindness. This restricts his visual vocabulary and yet both forces and enables him to strip away these distractions to focus on the structures and patterns as he sees them. The joy of his imagery is in fact deeply embedded in this ability to present the canvas in its essential form. His images bring solace to our psyche constantly overwhelmed by the overstimulation of color, and they encourage us to look beyond the color, taking in their essence in a new and releasing way. Out of less comes more.

Given his industrial heritage, many of his studies gravitate toward decaying man-made structures and the appreciation of their form together with their interaction with the regenerative power of nature. Similarly, his minimalist images of modern architecture celebrate the architect’s intent, stripped down to form and purpose.

G. B. Smith’s early enthusiasm in photography, matched by his interest in emerging communication technologies and entrepreneurship, led him down a path of discovery and exploration in countries and cultures throughout the world.

His ability to understand context and distill things down to their essence has also made him highly successful in his other persona, as a technology and business leader and one of the longest serving public company CEO’s in the USA. A truly global citizen, having lived on multiple continents and worked extensively in six, he now resides in Maryland, USA, and combines extensive global travel with a rekindled passion for Fine Art photography.

His much anticipated first book publication PATHWAYS, is due to be published in the fall of 2023, featuring selected works from several of G. B. Smith’s current collections, including many of his more recent award-winning images.

He is a lifelong member of the Royal Photographic Society.

Reviews

[JW · Rating 5 out of 5]

This quickly became one of my favorite photography books and I own quite a few. The section on architecture is my favorite and is visually impressive as is the entire collection of B&W images. The fact that purchasing this volume supports breast cancer awareness is icing on an already important cake.

[Brent Liam]

such a good book , would like to recommend to all the readers!