David Ross Smith

Whether producing documentaries for broadcast television or photographing the Third World, David Ross Smith always immerses himself in the concepts of storytelling and the nuances of communication (and lack thereof), continually engaged in capturing and expressing the emotional details of life in images and words... At National Geographic Television (1999-2011), DRS helped create highly rated, trend-setting programs as field director, co-writer and researcher, including National Geographic's Most Amazing Moments, The World's Most Dangerous Drug, and episodes of Mega Structures and the popular prison series, Lockdown. In 2009-2010 David lensed a variety of images in Beijing and Boston for HandReach, a non-profit organization that raises funds for young burn victims in China. His work in Beijing resulted in the short, impromptu film, Bright River, which screened at several film festivals in 2010 and won laurels at The Indie Fest in La Jolla, CA. His photography for HandReach represents some of his most intimate work. In 2008-2009 David helped shoot director Iara Lee's feature-length documentary, Cultures of Resistance, as well as several short-form documentaries and arts & culture shorts - on location on four continents, predominantly in the Third World. DRS also shot the Washington, DC sequences of Candace Schermerhorn's feature-length doc, The Naked Option: A Last Resort. From 1998 to 2003 David freelanced as a music and film critic. His critiques, interviews and articles are widely published in print and online, most prominently by Rovi's All Music Guide. During this time he was also a staff writer for Quincy Jones' short-lived music website, Qradio. In 2014 David started piecing together footage he captured five years earlier at Orpheus Records (in Clarendon, Virginia) to create Record Store, a series of short Webisodes about the "record store" experience.