This photograph was made at Blue Hole, a popular but remote swimming hole in Carter County, Tennessee. I met three friends there that day—one was my former long-time assistant and photographer Shawne Brown, his wife Jessica, and their friend Kevin.  It was quite hot that day. Many others were enjoying the cool shade and cold water.   

Shawne and I set about working independently. The deep shadows required long exposure, and I needed the figures to be still, so I asked Jessica and Kevin if they would float as stationary as possible in the icy water. Considering the film's exposure time with the 8x10 view camera was 1/2 second, they did a great job!

 Mike Smith, Blue Hole, Elizabethton, TN, 2010. © Mike Smith, courtesy Lee Marks Gallery.

Mike Smith photographs the rural American Southeast in large-format color photography, exposing the unique beauty of the region and the people who call it home. Born in Germany, Mike Smith received his B.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art and his M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art. He has been a Professor of Photography at East Tennessee State University since 1981. Mike Smith's photography is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Art Institute of Chicago. He was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, was a 2000 finalist for the Alfred Eisenstadt/LIFE Magazine, and is the recipient of the United States Artists Lowe Fellowship for 2011. Mike Smith is represented by Lee Marks Fine Art, Shelbyville, IN; Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco; Jackson Fine Arts, Atlanta; and Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York.