In Time We Shall Known Ourselves
In the summer of 1974, a young Raymond Smith set out from New Haven, Connecticut, with a friend and two medium-format, twin-lens cameras to see and photograph America. They travelled in a Volkswagen Beetle for six weeks until the car broke down in Kansas City. Now, on the fortieth anniversary of Smith’s sojourn, In Time We Shall Know Ourselves stands as an independent statement about the American South and photography in the mid-1970s. The artist once wrote that his photography is “more closely related to literature, especially fiction … than it is to the other visual arts,” and that the “portrait is primary, and the photograph is a short story exploding beyond its frame.” The fifty-two portraits present an epic travel narrative that serves as a window through which we glimpse an earlier age, while catching a reflection that, over time, lends fresh perspective on the past as well as the present.
Image: Raymond Smith, Fotomat Girl, Louisville, Kentucky, 1974. Gelatin silver print, 5 1/2 × 5 inches. Lent by the artist.
