Frith Street Gallery

b. 1966, Essex, England

Bridget Smith’s photographs document the construction of fantasy, the architecture of entertainment, environments created principally for the consumption of pleasure. She is interested in the way that entertainment is presented to us; the organisation and control that is necessary for fantasies to be made real, places where pretence and reality are confused. Many of Smith’s photographs focus on the details that go into the industry of escapism – the space, the lighting, the effects of colour and the choice of props. All of these are designed to seduce and allow us to embrace a new role, however momentarily. She sees her work as revealing a somewhat privileged view of this construction, like a tourist observing their surroundings without ever being a part of them.

Bridget Smith’s new book Society has recently been published by SteidlMACK and General Public Agency. Her exhibition Cosmos was shown at Frith Street Gallery in 2006. Smith’s work was included in the exhibition Stardust at Musee D’art Contemporain, Val de Marne in 2007. In recent years Smith has been included in group exhibitions at Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; The Photographer’s Gallery, London; South London Gallery, London and Madison Art Center, Wisconsin. In 2003, she took part in Sodium Dreams, at the CCS Museum, New York. In 2002 she had a major solo exhibition at the Consorcio Salamanca, which included a comprehensive publication of her work. She is represented in public and private collections including BMW, Munich; Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Arts Council of England.

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