Photography exhibition her first
It took a fair bit of elbowing from her husband, but Rachael Smith is looking forward to the opening of her first photography exhibition, albeit nervously.
Palmerston North based Smith has been taking photos for years, but only took the leap of faith to put her work in front of the public eye when her husband encouraged her to and a space came up at the Taylor Jensen Fine Arts Gallery.
‘‘It’s a little bit of trial by fire. I’ve always had stuff on a website but it’s different than an exhibition. It’s very easy to remove yourself from your emotions about an image when it’s online, I mean you don’t get to see people’s reactions so this is, well, terrifying.’’
Smith’s exhibition Heart Standing Still will have a focus on Manawatu and Smith said she wanted to highlight the beauty of what’s on our doorstep but also have a real mix of styles.
‘‘There’s black and whites, abstracts and colour landscapes. The ones that I have chosen are special in the association they have with the Manawatu area or because there is something about them that appeals to me. I want there to be a bit of me in there.’’
Smith said she has always been interested in photography but it was while living in the USA trying to capture the beauty of hummingbirds with her camera that her passion for photography really took hold.
‘‘It [the hummingbird] was just in the backyard and they are really, really hard to photograph with a poor camera. They are amazing creatures, I watched one day badgering a hawk, trying to chase it away and this tiny little thing was so brave.’’
Smith said it got her thinking about how ‘‘you do things’’ and it set her on a path of learning and figuring out by trial and error.
Rachael Smith’s exhibition Heart Standing Still opens at Palmerston North’s Taylor Jensen Fine Arts with a public reception on September 30 and will run until October 19.