On the occasion of Jazz Requiem—Notations in Blue opening in Portland, Maine.

The Gund is pleased to share a recorded conversation between artist Ming Smith and Daisy Desrosiers, Director and Chief Curator of The Gund at Kenyon College. The conversation took place at the Portland Museum of Art (PMA) in celebration of the opening of Jazz Requiem—Notations in Blue, a landmark exhibition honoring Smith’s singular vision and enduring contributions to photography, previously on view at The Gund from June 27 - December 15, 2024.

In this intimate exchange, Smith and Desrosiers reflect on the emotional and improvisational currents that shape Jazz Requiem—Notations in Blue. Moving between personal memory and cultural history, they discuss Smith’s deep engagement with jazz and art making as both subject and structure—its tonalities, rhythms, and spiritual resonances—and how photography can function like music: expressive, improvisational, and attuned to the unseen.

Smith speaks to her longstanding commitment to rendering Black life with lyricism and abstraction, while Desrosiers situates the exhibition within broader dialogues around contemporary art, lineage, and institutional space. Together, they illuminate the poetic and political dimensions of Smith’s practice and the continuing relevance of her work today.

We invite you to experience this rich dialogue and to explore Jazz Requiem—Notations in Blue as an extension of the conversation—an embodied meditation on sound, light, memory, and presence.