Celebrating our HHS Photographer of 32 Years: Chris Smith
After 32 years at HHS, and 38 years within the federal authorities, our photographer Chris Smith is retiring. I can communicate for our complete HHS workforce after I say we’re going to overlook seeing him round along with his digicam, and we’ll miss his presence.
He’s a widely known title round right here, recognized all through our constructing and throughout the federal authorities.
In three many years, he’s captured historical past and helped inform our story to the nation. He did extra than simply create extraordinary pictures; he helped us doc who we’re as folks, and who we’re as a Division.
As a result of it isn’t simply the work we do, it is the those who do the work. And due to his eager eye, we’ve got an unparalleled file of what the individuals who’ve been a part of HHS have accomplished for America over the past 32 years.
Chris began at HHS in September 1990 and has served beneath six administrations and photographed 9 HHS Secretaries. Earlier than that, he bought his introduction to the federal authorities on the U.S. Division of the Treasury the place he labored beneath one other trailblazer and early Black photographer within the federal authorities.
Chris’s father and father-in-law had been each Tuskegee Airmen and his father grew to become a fireman in D.C., Chris’s hometown. Chris attended Duke Ellington College of the Arts and found his love of pictures by a summer season youth program and by enjoying round in his father’s darkish room.
Pictured right here: Chris Smith’s father, Theodore Paul Smith, in uniform as a Tuskegee Airman.
His work is featured within the Smithsonian—this image he took of buttons and lapel pins in help of our work to deal with the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Chris has additionally taken numerous headshots, together with my very own, and 4 of his Secretary portraits presently cling within the Nice Corridor the place they may keep, enshrined in historical past.
That’s why I needed to take a second and write somewhat about Chris, his life, and his work – it’s part of historical past. Historical past flows by us, and we change into it. It’s one thing price celebrating, and one thing price preserving for future generations.
Chris, thanks for preserving our historical past and congratulations on leaving your mark on the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies.
We want you a really joyful retirement.
