Steven G. Smith | Department of Journalism

Steven G. Smith Photographer — Steven G. Smith, Visual Communication

Steven G. Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning visual storyteller and professor of visual communication. For more than 25 years, Smith’s work has been featured by prominent media organizations, including The New York Times, Time, ABC News, The New York Times Magazine, the National Geographic Channel, ESPN, CNN, PBS Public Broadcasting Service, Smithsonian Magazine, and MSNBC.com. His work is built around an aesthetic drawn from his appreciation of people, culture, and art. His passion is the pursuit of the intersection between visual arts and storytelling.

His films have been exhibited internationally including in the New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles, Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival, New Zealand, Planet in Focus, International Film & Video Festival, Toronto, Canada. His short films have garnered a number of accolades including first place at the New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles, and one of his films was selected as one of the “best short films of the last ten years” at the Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival, New Zealand.

He is the author of Under the Dark Sky, Life in the Thames River Basin, Wesleyan University Press, published 2018. This photo essay book offers a portrait of a region that extends from southern Massachusetts through Connecticut to the Long Island Sound. Sometimes called “the Last Green Valley” or “the Quiet Corner,” this region was designated a Natural Heritage Corridor in 1994 because it is one of the last remaining stretches of green in the area and boasts some of the most extensive unbroken forests in southern New England.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize (shared award, photo essay, print, and multimedia)

During more than 12 years as a staff visual journalist, Smith has won dozens of awards for his images from notable organizations, including the Pulitzer Prize, National Press Photographers Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of News Design, the World Sports Photography Contest, and the Associated Press. He has also received the prestigious Portfolio Award from the Society of News Design.

Smith has also won eleven awards from Pictures of the Year International (POYi), including six individual awards such as 1st Place Feature Photography, 1st Place Magazine Pictorial, and prestigious team honors such as the Angus McDougal Award for Overall Excellence. Pictures of the Year International garners thousands of professional entries each year and is considered one of the world’s preeminent documentary storytelling contests.

Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize four times, Smith won the award in 2002 as part of a group of photographers who created a multimedia photo essay on the Colorado Wildfires for the Rocky Mountain News. Smith received a second nomination that year for his visual reportage of the Salt Lake Olympics.

Smith’s images have been exhibited at some of the most prominent institutions in the field, including The Smithsonian, the National Press Club, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, The International Professional Photography Hall of Fame, and the Science Museum. He also had a photograph on permanent exhibit at The Newseum, showcasing one of his Pulitzer Prize-winning images. Moreover, his work has received recognition from National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as an American Master Artist Grant.

Steven has an enjoyable career that he loves, which has enabled him to work with amazing people. He’s happily married to his wife Gwyn, and together they have two sons, Luke and Cole. Gwyn and Steven enjoy hiking in the woods with their dogs, Red and Lily. Steven also values the time he spends volunteering with organizations such as Help Portraits, a group that creates holiday portraits for families in need.

Areas of interest:
• Social Documentary
• Design & Design Thinking
• Cinematography, including aerial and time-lapse
• Photography & Photojournalism
• Multimedia
• Digital Media Production
• New Media Storytelling

Website at www.stevengsmith.com,