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Eric is a multidisciplinary creative with a twenty five year career that spans roles at top creative agencies like Imaginary Forces, the Trailer Park Group and Free Range Studios. He has directed live action and animated sequences for major feature films at Paramount, Disney, Universal and numerous commercials for Fortune 500 companies. As an SVP Content at the CBS Corporation, Eric directed video at the intersection of commerce and social good. He is also an accomplished photographer featured by National Geographic, Smithsonian and the Royal Photographic Society.

Eric’s photographs have been exhibited by the National Geographic Society, most recently at the Conference of the Parties (COP22), the UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, Morocco and in their ongoing “View from Above” exhibition at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. In 2021, Eric’s photographs have been included in “A Decade of Change” the inaugural exhibition of climate change imagery curated by the British Journal of Photography. His photography was included in the Los Angeles Center of Photography’s 7th annual Street Photography exhibition as well as "Whale Vision” an exhibition of whale photographs in Reykjavik, Iceland. In 2016, Eric had a solo exhibition of photographs “Abstract/Earth” at Hermosa Design in Hermosa Beach, California and in 2007 had a solo exhibition “Progress + Light” at the Epoxybox Gallery in Venice, California. He is currently represented by the Five3 Gallery in Laguna Beach, California.

Eric attended the Hartford Art School and is a summa cum laude graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design where he received the Joan Shewmon Memorial Scholarship for excellence in Graphic Design. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America, The Royal Photographic Society, and the Los Angeles Center of Photography.

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Press

Eric has been in the public eye for over a decade. According to the Huffington Post, “his Instagram Account is full of stunning images of everything from hummingbirds to rock concerts.” His work on the solo exhibition “Progress + Light” was featured on the Sundance Channel series “Big Ideas for a Small Planet.” The show features artists who make sustainability a feature of their craft through subject matter, messaging and materials. Eric's most well known photograph of a humpback whale breach next to a texting boater, titled "A Sign of the Times," has been featured by hundreds of media outlets around the world. The image sparked an international dialogue about addiction to smart phones. That image was followed up by “Hide and Seek” another viral image of a spy hopping gray whale behind a boat of visitors in Baja’s San Ignacio Lagoon. Below are links to selected articles and television coverage:

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Books & Periodicals

“Cybercrank!” by Manfred Spitzer, published by Droemer, Germany

“Die Smarte Diktatur” by Harald Welzer, published by S, Fischer, Germany

Diablo Magazine

Zeit Magazin, Germany

National Geographic

The Christian Science Monitor

Outside

The New York Post

The Huffington Post

The Daily Mail

The Guardian

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"Bearing Witness: The Photographs of Eric J. Smith”, the first book chronicling Eric's work is now available.