Heather Evans Smith

For this image I was inspired by a grade school picture of my mother. Her head is turned to the side and clips are holding back fly-aways that may escape her ponytail. I thought about this in terms of a woman’s life. We are constantly juggling careers, family, emotions, and expectations-attempting to “keep it all together”.

Heather Evans Smith (born 1976, Kinston, NC; lives Chapel Hill, NC) is a photo-based artist whose work reflects her southern roots, motherhood, womanhood and a whimsical imagination she relied on as an only child in a rural town. Her photographic imagery explores the ideas of memory, loss and family in conceptual settings.  She holds a BA in Visual Communications from Peace College in Raleigh, NC. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO and the Vermont Center for Photography in Brattleboro, VT.  She has been included in group exhibitions at venues including the Fox Talbot Museum in Lacock, England, the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, NC and Leica Galerie Milano in Milan, Italy.  She is a Critical Mass 2014, 2018 and 2021 Top 50 recipient. Her first monograph, Seen Not Heard, was published by Flash Powder Projects in 2016 followed by her self-published monograph, Alterations, in 2020. Her work resides in the permanent collections of Cassilhaus, Colorado Photographic Arts Center and Blue: The Tatter Textile Library.