Tim Smith

Don’s Photo
410 Portage Ave
Mon - Fri
9:30am - 6pm

In the world, but not of it.

2009 - Present

Beginning with a chance encounter in 2009, Tim Smith has been documenting and building relationships with Hutterite communities in Manitoba over the past thirteen years. An Anabaptist group whose roots trace back to the 16th Century Reformation, Hutterites live communally on colonies throughout western Canada and the north-western United States. Their culture continues to be preserved through deliberate separation from mainstream society and economic self-sufficiency. 

The Hutterites are currently in the midst of one of the most successful periods of their approximately 500 year history. Facing no overt threats from the outside world they have prospered and grown to approximately 50,000 members living on colonies throughout North America. Members are provided for throughout their entire lives and on the whole experience less of the loneliness and isolation prevalent in the modern world. The importance given to engagement in family life, social life and spirituality, and the defined purpose for their lives means Hutterite communities meet many of the requirements to be considered Blue Zones; area’s where health, happiness and life expectancy rates are higher than average.

Hutterites are often either romanticized or denigrated as simple, backwards, quaint and/or old fashioned. The reality is that their society is very complex and each colony is unique. Smith uses photography to document the breadth and complexity of the Hutterite experience as well as to show how colonies navigate the need to respond to the external pressures of the world around them while holding on to key traditions central to their faith. His photographs provide a contemporary and nuanced view of the Hutterite colonies – delving into complex decisions at the heart of the everyday. They offer a glimpse into the continuously negotiated sites of Hutterite life. Many of the images focus on the youth culture in the colonies, where expressions of rebellion, respect for tradition, and maintenance of strict gender roles all create a sense of dual resistance – at once against the pressures of the outside world and against tradition. 

Having devoted thirteen years to this ongoing documentation, Smith’s understanding of the Hutterite communities creates a possibility of showing their complexity in ways that are responsive to how they wish to be seen. Smith’s work is amongst the broadest and most extensive visual documentations of the Hutterites ever produced.

Tim Smith is a documentary photographer from Brandon, Manitoba. His work explores the connection between the people that inhabit the prairies and the landscape around them. In addition to long-term documentary work Smith covers assignments for a variety of editorial and commercial clients in the prairies and occasionally further on. His work has been published in newspapers and magazines worldwide and exhibited in Canada, Europe, Northern Ireland, Israel and the United States. Portions of his work from the prairies and the Hutterites are part of the Province of Manitoba's art collection as well as the permanent display at the Múzeum habánov v Sobotišti in Slovakia. Smith is an ally for the Coalition for Women in Journalism.