After 32 years at HHS, and 38 years within the federal authorities, our photographer Chris Smith is retiring. I can converse for our entire 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 well known title round right here, identified all through our constructing and throughout the federal authorities.
In three a long time, he’s captured historical past and helped inform our story to the nation. He did extra than simply create extraordinary photos; he helped us doc who we’re as folks, and who we’re as a Division.
As a result of it is not simply the work we do, it is the those who do the work. And due to his eager eye, now we have an unparalleled report of what the individuals who’ve been a part of HHS have carried out for America over the past 32 years.
Chris began at HHS in September 1990 and has served below six administrations and photographed 9 HHS Secretaries. Earlier than that, he obtained his introduction to the federal authorities on the U.S. Division of the Treasury the place he labored below one other trailblazer and early Black photographer within the federal authorities.
Chris’s father and father-in-law have been each Tuskegee Airmen and his father grew to become a fireman in D.C., Chris’s hometown. Chris attended Duke Ellington Faculty 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 assist of our work to handle the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Chris has additionally taken numerous headshots, together with my very own, and 4 of his Secretary portraits at present cling within the Nice Corridor the place they may keep, enshrined in historical past.
That’s why I wished to take a second and write a little bit about Chris, his life, and his work – it’s part of historical past. Historical past flows by us, and we grow to be it. It’s one thing value celebrating, and one thing value 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.
