Welcome to Port Prints by K.B. Smith. I have spent nearly two decades working on the waterfront, capturing moments, large and small in and around the Chesapeake Bay and in particular, the Port of Baltimore.
The mission of my work is to share the beauty of the working waterfront. Maritime industry gets a bad rap. Many people think the beauty of the Chesapeake is confined to the bucolic scenes of sailboats gracefully skimming along a shoreline of green fields, beaches or marshlands. But the strange beauty of the big cranes picking containers off ships embody more than the prosaic beauty of sunsets and sailboats. Here there is mystery, what foreign ports did this come from...what’s in those boxes? There is history, Baltimore is one of America’s earliest and most important seaports. There is danger; such big equipment, such long voyages...This is where stuff get real.
I love being on the terminal when ships are working. There is a carefully choreographed dance with many players working quickly and agilely to turn a ship around. The energy is palpable. This is what I sometimes want to capture. Sometimes it is the sheer power of the tugs or the force of the water. These are often the subjects of my abstract, non-narrative work.
I invite you to peruse my archive as I add more images. I welcome your feedback.
—Kathy