Rate My Professor Martin Smith

Dr. Martin Smith is a Senior Lecturer in the Queensland College of Art and Design at Griffith University, where he specializes in photography as the Convenor of Photographic Art Practice and First-Year Advisor for the Visual Arts Cluster. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Narrative in Contemporary Photographic Practice at Queensland College of Art/Griffith University in 2018. Earlier, he obtained a Bachelor of Visual Art with Honours in photography in 2000 and a Bachelor of Visual Art in photography in 1995 from the same institution. Smith's academic career at Griffith University encompasses teaching photography at undergraduate and honours levels, higher degree research supervision, and leadership in visual arts programs.

Smith's research and creative practice investigate the interplay between language and vernacular photography to explore personal histories, identity construction, and representational modes through disrupted text-image relationships and narrative devices. He has received significant accolades, including the Veolia Prize from the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Clayton Utz Travelling Scholarship in 2008, Prometheus Award in 2011, KLM Paul Huf Award in 2008, Artworkers Alliance Award in 2005, and Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Awards in 2004, 2007, and 2010. Key publications feature his monograph Martin Smith Photographs: In Response to... (2008, Queensland Centre for Photography), alongside catalogue essays in Cutting Edge: 21st-Century Photography (2016, Monash Gallery of Art), The State We’re In: Contemporary Queensland Photography (2010, University of Queensland Art Museum), and features in Photofile (2008). His works reside in esteemed collections including Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, University of Queensland Art Museum, Museum of Old and New Art, Monash Gallery of Art, and Artbank. Smith has presented solo exhibitions at Jan Murphy Gallery (Brisbane), Sophie Gannon Gallery (Melbourne), Centre for Contemporary Photography (Melbourne), and internationally at United Photo Industries (Brooklyn, USA), Dong Gang International Photography Festival (South Korea), and NARS Foundation (New York residency, 2017). Group shows include Primavera 07 (Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney), Q150 (Queensland Art Gallery), and Photoville (New York). These achievements underscore his influence in contemporary photographic art.