Ali Smith

In 2002, Smith published her first book, Laws of the Bandit Queens. It contains portraits of women who influenced Smith in her career goals by succeeding while living unconventional lives. Some of the 35 women included are Alice Walker, Sandra Bernhard, Lydia Lunch, and Ann Magnuson. Smith's second book of photography — Momma Love: How the Mother Half Lives — is an exploration of modern motherhood through a feminist perspective via portraiture and deeply personal interviews. It was a New York Times "pick", activist Gloria Steinem wrote the back cover copy, calling it "a gift to moms," and photographer Amy Arbus deemed it "essential". In her personal work, Smith continued pursuing inspirational stories about issues she cared about most, writing and photographing essays about gun violence in America, medical marijuana, the environmental work of waste-pickers. Smith's photo assignments cover subjects as varied as gun violence, to celebrity portraits of Isabella Rossellini and Paulina Porizkova, among other clients. She also did work for Rolling Stone magazine, including, in 2023, photographing Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins.