Student Work
Storytelling Through Photography: Inland Empire Students Inspired by Lenard Smith
California Museum of Photography
May 3, 2026 to May 31, 2026
Photography classes from Riverside STEM High School and Vista Murrieta High School worked with artist and educator Lenard Smith this spring on a photography workshop inspired by his exhibition, Lenard Smith: Fortuitous Encounters, currently on view at the California Museum of Photography.
Smith constructs still life compositions with found objects including photographic equipment and theoretical publications, studio detritus, and signifiers of Black identity and culture.
To create these photographs, students brought objects from home and worked with Smith in a studio setting to construct their own assemblage sculptures, photographing them against the same colorful backdrops that Smith uses in his own practice. Their compositions explore ideas about the sentimental value of objects, how they can create a narrative through composition, and how their images fit within the idea of an archive.
Installation Views:
Student Work
ART 450: Topics in Advanced Photography
University of Southern California
Fall 2025
Part-Time Faculty
Documentation: 7 Books
The Helen Topping Architecture & Fine Arts Library
April 30 - May 15, 2026
Perfect Bound
36 pages
Printed and Bound at USC Galen Printmaking Lab
Each book, Edition of 3
*Use arrows below to navigate image gallery.
ART 451: Large Format Photography
University of Southern California
Fall 2025
Part-Time Faculty
Documentation: Digital Broadsheet
28 Pages
55 gsm improved paper
380 mm x 578 mm / 14.96 in. x 22.76 in.
Printed in the United Kingdom
Edition of 30
Student Work
Student Work
Student Work
University of California, Riverside
Visiting Assistant Professor
2023 -2025
Students in each quarter produced cohesive bodies of photographic work, edited their own photographs, sequenced images, designed, printed and bound individual zines as part of a publishing pedagogy.
Their work is now included in the Rivera Library Special Collections and Archives at University of California, Riverside.
Documentation:
Complete set of custom linen wrapped slipcases with foil stamp.
Edition: 1/2
