Oh Schmidt Productions

Shelly Marshall Schmidt: Behind the Scenes

From an upstairs office overlooking Aiken’s Main Street, Shelly Schmidt takes in the city that has made her one of its most famous local photographers. She is identified by the images she captures and most admirers of her work probably never will know her by name.

But long before her move to Aiken, S.C., Shelly was the proverbial sleeping giant of fine art photography. Her clients include international fashion sensation Hugo Boss, Italian made MoMo Watches, and muscle car manufacturers Porsche and Ferrari.

To be honest, she had never given much thought to photography as a career, expecting to profit more from her formal training in interior design. But “art” intrigued her. The same designer’s eyes that saw what an empty space could be also focused on the meaningful details to photograph in a cluttered world. Gradually she designed her own interior as a person with a passion for pictures.

Maybe it was born in her. Elmore F. Lewis, Shelly’s maternal grandfather, was a surgeon by trade, but also a hobby photographer who documented life on the family farm in Michigan. He owned a small plane and from the air, he and Shelly photographed the landscape below. Neither of them envisioned then that Shelly would ultimately fly to remote parts of the world to take pictures or that she would become a celebrated sports photographer of auto racing and equestrian events.

Shelly started shooting auto races for the experience, going along with her husband, who was part of a racing crew. She posed as a fellow crew member to document the action because she didn’t yet have “legitimate” credentials. She didn’t work for a racing magazine or international news service. Shelly got the experience she wanted, and more. Sponsors including Exxon and Mobile began noticing her work and hired her. And when well-known drivers began modeling Hugo Boss, MoMo watches and other international names, Shelly photographed them, which landed her work in men’s fashion magazines.

She was one of the first women to document The American Le Mans Series, a sport steeped in tradition. Its heritage stems from the world’s most famous auto race , the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where the best automobile marquees and drivers compete.

Elite manufacturers including Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, Ferrari, Jaguar, Panoz, Peugeot and Porsche have graced victory lane. Behind the wheel, a “who’s who” of the greatest drivers in motorsports history have claimed 24 Hours of Le Mans victories. Shelly has photographed them. They want pictures of themselves, their cars, and their races to hang on their walls. Pictures for publicity. Pictures for their sponsors. So she shoots everything from action on the track to portraits of the cars, drivers, teams, sponsors, owners and celebrities. Regrettably, she also captures those sudden flaming accidents that occasionally occur when man and machine seek to outdo competitors in a race with only one winner.

In Aiken, for more than century a training ground for all the great equestrian sports, Shelly is photographing horses. Steeplechasing and harness racing are also regular attractions here, as is high-goal polo, fox hunting, three-day eventing, dressage, show jumping, barrel racing and cutting horses.

That window overlooking Main Street opens to a different world than many that Shelly has seen through her lens. Through the years she has worked and traveled with one of her favorite photographers, Phil Borges, who seeks subjects in remote places – sometimes so far from civilization that some people he photographs have never seen their own likeness in a mirror, much less a picture. From him Shelly has learned to take the roads less traveled.

And where they lead, her technique isn't about virtuosic lighting or complex set-ups created with all of the photo resources of the developed world at her disposal. Instead, it's about maintaining her sanity and preserving her vertebrae in challenging conditions. It's about lighting with only the equipment she can carry on her back on terrain so rugged that setting up a light stand is futile.

Shelly also contributes to humanitarian projects, including one close to her heart, Women Beyond Cancer. It is a nonprofit group that hosts retreats in several states for women in various stages of the illness. Shelly, herself a survivor, documents the retreats. Her touching photographs are in an exhibit, “Celebrating the Journey,” on permanent display at Aiken Regional Medical Centers and the Comprehensive Cancer Care Center at Mt. Sinai in Miami Beach.

That is another feature of Shelly’s personal interior design. When she says she is living in Aiken, the key word is living.