Rick Smolan
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A former TIME, LIFE and National Geographic photographer, Rick Smolan has spent two decades finding ways to place himself and his projects directly in the path of the converging worlds of photography, design, publishing, and technology.
Smolan created the best-selling "Day in the Life" photography series and is CEO of Against All Odds Productions, which specializes in the design and execution of large-scale global photographic projects that combine compelling story-telling with state-of-the-art technology. Eight of the company's projects have been featured on the covers of Fortune, TIME, Newsweek and US News & World Report.
"From Alice to Ocean: Alone Across the Outback" was the first illustrated book ever to include an interactive CD-ROM disc. The San Francisco Chronicle called it "a stunning, addictive and mesmerizing experience that may well change the course of publishing forever." In 2006, actress Helen Hunt will be starring in a Disney movie based on the book.
"Passage to Vietnam: Through the Eyes of 70 Photographers", a large-format illustrated book and a CD-ROM, was created in partnership with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Interval Research. The New York Times described Passage to Vietnam as "the most beautiful CD-ROM ever."
Against All Odds' 1996 project, 24 Hours in Cyberspace, was the largest online event ever to take place in a single day. The goal of the project, which was sponsored by AOL, Kodak, Sun Microsystems and Adobe, was to tell compelling human interest stories about how Cyberspace is changing people's lives - to create a global portrait of the human face of the on-line revolution. The project resulted in an illustrated book released in November, 1996, and was both featured on ABC TV's Nightline and appeared as a cover story on US News & World Report. A photographic exhibition of "24 Hours in Cyberspace" was unveiled at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in January, 1997, by Vice President Gore. The project generated over 250 million media impressions worldwide.
"One Digital Day: How the Microchip is Changing Our World" was published in June 1998 in conjunction with the celebration of Intel's 30th anniversary. The book was featured on the cover of Asia Week and in a 31-page cover story in Fortune Magazine. CNN also ran a half-hour TV special about the project. The TV special was also shown on the United Airlines in-flight entertainment system for three months. The project generated over 300 million media impressions worldwide.
"The Planet Project: Your Voice Your World" was the largest real time online poll in Internet history. 500 pollsters were sent to the most remote places on earth armed with Palm Pilots containing 220 questions in 8 languages aimed at determining what it means to be a human being at the dawn of the millennium. The 8-language web site was visited by 1.6 million people from 241 countries who answered more than 28 million questions. The Planet Project generated 781 million media impressions worldwide.
Smolan received much praise in 2003 for America 24/7, the largest photography event in US history which he co-produced and directed with David Elliot Cohen. During the week of May 12, 2003, Smolan and partner David Elliot Cohen at 24/7 Media Inc. team equipped 1,000 top photojournalists (including 36 Pulitzer Prize winners) with digital cameras and sent them across the United States to create an extraordinary snapshot of American life. Thanks to the Internet and the widespread adoption of digital cameras, more than 25,000 stringers, students and amateurs also submitted images to the project website. USA Today observed that "America 24/7 is an ambitious effort to document in photos the way we live our lives."
The America 24/7 series includes 51 photography books, accompanied by TV documentaries, a website and worldwide traveling photo exhibitions. The first book in the series, America 24/7, reached number five on the New York Times best seller lists. In addition, 50 more hardcover books based upon the project were published in September 2004 – one for each state – all published on the same day. This unprecedented publishing schedule marks the largest number of books ever published simultaneously by a trade book publisher.
The book received more attention when it was featured by Oprah Winfrey on her annual "Favorite Things" program in fall 2003. Oprah took advantage of the project's "Custom Cover" innovation by displaying her own customized copy of America 24/7 featuring her dogs, Sophie and Solomon. More than 80,000 people to date have personalized their copies of America 24/7 with their own photos.
Smolan's next project will be "Sixteen In America" - a one week documentation to be shot in the fall of 2006 by ten thousand 16-year-olds using cameras, handicams, tape recorders and web sites to capture what it's like to be "coming of age" in America at the dawn of the Millennium.
Smolan is an alumnus of Dickinson College.
Against All Odds Productions is located in Sausalito, CA.
