User:Morgknop37/Morgan and Marvin Smith: he/him, he/him, American, 1910-1993, 1910-2003

Marriage and Family
Marvin and Morgan met twin sisters Anna and Florence McLean. Both couples were married on the same day in 1936 and both couples divorced in 1939. Morgan was remarried in 1950 to Monica Mais and had one daughter, Monica. Marvin never remarried.

Early Career
The Smiths decided to commit themselves to the media of photography in 1937 and took free art classes taught by sculptor Augusta Savage. There they met numerous other influential artists including Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden as well as their future wives. Morgan became the first staff photographer for New York Amsterdam News (1937-1939), the most popular Black newspaper at the time. Two years later they opened their own photography studio, M & M Smith Studios, next to the famed Apollo Theater. The twins were the theater's official photographers and through this job met influential models, artists and performers. Their studio became a hub of activity for entertainers and writers, as well as the location of the majority of their portrait photography. They photographed George Washington Carver and Billie Holiday, among other famous Black artists and politicians, as well as street life in Harlem during this time.

The Smiths photographed with the intention of showing the different facets of Black life. They not only captured the Civil rights movement, but weddings, portraits and birthdays, depicting a wide variety of the African American experience in the United States.