7/1/2023 0 Comments Image smith photography![]() ![]() Still, it wasn’t until Smith was a student at the University of Illinois that he unexpectedly found his true muse. “I like to be good-not just kinda good-and if I am around someone who is better than I am at something, I use that as motivation.” Whether drawing, playing basketball or making music, he would throw himself obsessively into his pursuits. That competitive drive would prove a constant in Smith’s life. So I would try to draw the same way and get upset to the point of crying when I couldn’t.” Instead of giving up, Smith pushed himself to get better. “He could draw comic book characters, he could draw photo-realistically, just on another level. “My mom used to babysit this older kid when I was little, and he was really good at drawing,” Smith remembers. A childhood love of drawing became his first creative passion, and Smith was determined to master it. Although he came to photography later than most in his profession, Smith always had an affinity for art. He was raised in a single-parent home by his mother, Ida Brown, who runs a community-based nonprofit in the city. Smith grew up on Chicago’s South Side, specifically the South Shore, a lower-middle-class, predominantly African American neighborhood on the city’s lakefront. “We were striving to tell a more authentic story,” he recalls, “and here was Marcus capturing moments that are not your traditional hero shots-like a high school football practice-and making it cool and interesting.” ![]() “We found Marcus through his online portfolio, which is an impressive amount of work within a short period,” Sager explains. His unique approach to sports photography generated a groundswell of attention on social media, and to his credit, once Smith got the ball, he didn’t stop running.īill Sager, design director at San Diego–based ad agency VITRO, worked closely with Smith on a shoot for ASICS footwear. He has several Jordan Brand commissions under his belt-including images for Carmelo Anthony’s M9 sneaker and the 2012 Summer Olympics Rise Above and Men’s Basketball campaigns-in addition to projects for Nike Football. NBA star Carmelo Anthony sits, head cocked, eyes closed in the soft light, as a barber steadies his clippers for a last adjustment.Īlthough he has worked with clients as diverse as Bank of America, Degree deodorant and Pepsi, Smith is perhaps best known for his work with Nike. In a dark weight room, a woman grins broadly as she slaps her hands together in a cloud of athletic chalk. ![]() A young quarterback falls into his drop back, ball high and tight to his chest as late afternoon shadows reach across the gridiron. But the composition and technique is unmistakable. Smith’s sports photography is intimate and physical, images so candid they almost seem like casual snapshots. He played basketball until his junior year of high school and carries himself with a physical self-assuredness that makes me think he could probably run a few full-court games right now. Despite our ten-year age gap, we quickly bond over a shared passion for basketball, the Chicago Bulls in particular. So even though I have read his bio and talked to him on the phone, I’m still somewhat surprised when I meet Marcus Smith in Chicago. Few African American twentysomethings’ names would ring a bell in the world of commercial photography. ![]()
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