Tom Smart

Tom Smart was a longtime Deseret News photographer. After a 45-year career, he retired in 2016.

In a tribute to him, journalist Lee Benson wrote, “For decades, Tom has crossed all the borders — on assignment with the education editor one day, shooting the governor the next, doing the Ute game the next — and he’s done it all with a kind of bartender’s aplomb. He knows everything and everyone, inside the staff and out, and everyone knows him. His friendships and respect extend from the State Capitol to the symphony to the sidelines of every football field and basketball court in Utah to the Salt Lake Tribune.”[1]

Smart began his career at age 17 when he was hired as a copyboy at the Deseret News in 1971. He volunteered to take photos on his own time, which launched him into a career as a photojournalist. He also earned a degree in political science from the University of Utah and took photos for the Associated Press. He was promoted to chief photographer at the Deseret News in 1984. After 18 years, he “demoted himself.”[https://www.deseret.com/2016/3/6/20584847/about-utah-deseret-news-photographer-extraordinaire-leaving-the-best-job-in-the-world#after-being-kidnapped-for-over-nine-months-elizabeth-smart-is-reunited-with-her-grandfather-charles-smart-march-13-2003

Smart and Lee Benson wrote In Plain Sight: The Startling Truth Behind the Elizabeth Smart Investigation.

• Source: Deseret News, “Deseret News’ photographer extraordinaire leaving ‘the best job in the world’”

• Website: Tom Smart Photography