A veteran of the world of Japanese broadcast television, artist Stafford Hiroshi Smith, deals with the modern gods of mass media in his latest work, Holly Homemaker. Profoundly affected by the extent of mass media's influence on our development as individuals, Stafford seeks to raise our awareness of this phenomenon through his art. Stafford has worked in many mediums including painting, printmaking, and video but finds Photography the best weapon to deal with his feelings for mass media.

Stafford grew up as the only Asian/American in rural upstate New York and spent much of his childhood fending off inbred six-fingered hillbillies. After graduating from Wesleyan University in 1987 he moved to Japan and started down a course that led to a ten-year career in broadcast television and eventually a stint as a news anchor for Bloomberg Television. He currently resides in Ithaca, NY where he is practicing photography and dealing with fatherhood.

Stafford is greatly influenced by the deconstructed photography of Eikoh Hosoe who played greatly with our expectations of photographs in his series "Ordeal by Roses." Other major influences include the vignettes and story telling ability of Duane Michaels, the cinematic quality of Cindy Sherman and the gross overblown consumerist nightmares of David LaChapelle.

<< Back to the gallery | Contact