Presenter Bios

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  Aline Smithson

  Aline Smithson is a Los Angeles based artist best known for her conceptual portraiture and a practice that uses humor and pathos to explore ideas of childhood, aging, and the humanity that connects us. She has exhibited widely including over 40 solo shows at institutions such as the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Shanghai, Lishui, and Pingyao Festivals in China. In addition, her work is held in a number of public collections and her photographs have been featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, PDN (cover), the PDN Photo Annual, Communication Arts Photo Annual, Eyemazing, and Silvershotz magazines.

  Aline is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Lenscratch, a daily journal on photography. In 2012, Aline received the Rising Star Award through the Griffin Museum of Photography for her contributions to the photographic community. In 2014, Aline’s work was selected for the Critical Mass Top 50 and she received the Excellence in Teaching Award from CENTEЯ. In 2015, the Magenta Foundation published her first significant monograph, Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography. In 2016, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum commissioned Aline to do a series of portraits for the upcoming Faces of Our Planet Exhibition. Her work will be exhibited with the National Portrait Gallery in London as part of the Taylor Wessing Prize.