Volume

2010 - 2021

“Mickey Smith is a documentary photographer so she never alters or moves the books, but she does look hard. Very hard. Her extraordinary framing, keen sense of irony and, above all, careful eye for detail and implication make these pictures sizzle.”

― Bill Shapiro, Writer + Former Editor of Life Magazine

Volume is a long form documentary of bound periodicals and journals in public libraries. The books are not touched, artificially lit, or manipulated — rather created by the librarian and found in the stacks— positioned by the last reader. The focus is on simple, provocative titles that, through color and scale, transcend the spines on which they appear to create playful, anthropological, conceptual artworks.