Dax Smith
Dax Smith is a Chicago-and-NYC-based photographer, designer, and occasional menace. His work centers queer moments that are soft, strange, and beautifully unfiltered—like your group chat, but in 35mm.
He’s drawn to intimacy over polish, trust over performance, and anything with good light and questionable intentions. A background in art history gave him a steady eye for composition, drama, and decadence, but he’s not here to stage perfection. He started with street photography and still works that way: open, present, and yearning for something real.
Artist’s statement
Photography is how I flirt with the world.
It’s part ritual, part reaction, part “hold still, the light’s insane right now.” I don’t want to control the moment—I want to meet it where it’s at, whether that’s tender, horny, haunted, or just plain weird. My work is a collaboration between me, the subject, and whatever ghosts are hanging around the frame.
I shoot mostly portraits, occasionally analog, nearly always queer. I’m less interested in perfection than I am in something honest—something that sparks. A flash of skin, a stolen glance, a glimmer of wanton desire.
It’s not about creating the self. It’s about catching the parts we usually edit out.
Book him, babe
Dax takes portrait commissions, shoot bookings, questions, and compliments, preferably in that order.
Some slots fill fast. Interpret that how you will.