Reconsidering the Journey with Aline Smithson (Online)

This two session course will address the shifting sands of the photographic journey that have made us reconsider traditional paths to success. The photography world has undergone significant transformations since the onset of the global pandemic in 2020. The impact was not limited to the artists alone; it permeated through all facets of the industry, challenging conventional norms and prompting a reassessment of traditional paths to success. It has become critical to consider new ways of working, promoting, and thinking about how to move our work forward. Most importantly, artists need to reconsider and define success for themselves, considering personal growth, community engagement, and the impact of their work on a wider audience. Participants will come away with a myriad of ideas for new approaches to work and to marketing.

© Aline Smithson

Aline Smithson

Workshop Details

Dates: Two sessions over two weeks on Mondays: October 27 and November 3, 2025

Time: TBD

Format: Online

Course Fee: $285 (members) / $325 (non-members)

Pre-Interest Form: Let us know if you’re interested in taking the workshop by clicking the RSVP button below. Please respond by August 1, 2025! Registration will open on September 1, 2025.

Please let us know if you have any questions by emailing us at photos@griffinmuseum.org with the subject line: “Reconsidering the Journey: YOUR NAME”

About Aline Smithson

Aline Smithson is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, educator, and editor based in Los Angeles, California. Her practice examines the archetypal foundations of the creative impulse and she uses humor and pathos to explore the performative potential of photography. She received a BA in art from the University of California at Santa Barbara and was accepted into the College of Creative Studies, studying under significant California artists. After a decade-long career as a New York Fashion Editor, Smithson returned to Los Angeles and to her own artistic practice.

She has exhibited widely including over 50 solo shows at institutions such as the Griffin Museum of Photography, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, the San Jose Art Museum, the Shanghai, Lishui, and Pingyqo Festivals in China, The Rayko Photo Center in San Francisco, the Center of Fine Art Photography in Colorado, the Tagomago Gallery in Barcelona and Paris, and the Obscura Gallery in Santa Fe. In addition, her work is held in a number of significant public collections and her photographs have been featured in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, PDN, Communication Arts, Eyemazing, Real Simple, Los Angeles Magazine, Musee Magazine, Shots, Harpers and Silvershotz magazines.

In 2007, Smithson founded LENSCRATCH, a photography journal that celebrates a different contemporary photographer each day. She has been the Gallery Editor for Light Leaks Magazine, a contributing writer for Diffusion, Don’t Take Pictures, Lucida, and F Stop Magazines, written book reviews for photo-eye, and has provided the forewords for artist’s books by Tom Chambers, Meg Griffiths, Flash Forward 12, Micheal Honegger, Nancy Baron, and others. Smithson has curated and jurored exhibitions for numerous galleries, organizations, and on-line magazines, including Review Santa Fe, Critical Mass, Flash Forward, and the Griffin Museum. In addition, she is a reviewer and educator at many photo festivals across the United States.

In 2012, Smithson received the Rising Star Award through the Griffin Museum of Photography for her contributions to the photographic community. In 2014 and 2019, Smithson’s work was selected for Critical Mass Top 50. Smithson has been teaching at the Los Angeles Center of Photography since 2001 and also teaches at a variety of institutions such as ICP, SFW, MMW, and others. She received the Excellence in Teaching Award from CENTER in 2014 and was nominated by the Lucie Awards in 2022 as Photo Educator of the Year. In 2024, the Los Angeles Center of Photography established the Aline Smithson Next Generation Award.

In 2015, the Magenta Foundation published her retrospective monograph, Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography. In 2016, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum commissioned Smithson to create a series of portraits for the upcoming Faces of Our Planet Exhibition. In 2018 and 2019, Smithson was a finalist in the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize and exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London. She was commissioned to create the book, LOST: Los Angeles for Kris Graves Projects which now sold out. Peanut Press released her monograph, Fugue State, in Fall 2021. Her books are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Museum, the Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim, among others. Smithson was honored as a 2022 Hasselblad Heroine. With the exception on her iPhone, she only shoots film.