Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Here’s how you know

Dot gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

HTTPS

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (LockA locked padlock) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

HHS.gov
  • About HHS
  • Programs & Services
  • Grants & Contracts
  • Laws & Regulations

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Blog
  3. Celebrating our HHS Photographer of 32 Years: Chris Smith
Categories
Americans with Disabilities Act (1)
Coronavirus (10)
Emergency Preparedness and Response (1)
Fraud (1)
Global Health (4)
Grants and Contracts (1)
Health Data (3)
Health IT (7)
HHS Administrative (2)
HIPAA (1)
Holidays and Observances (10)
LGBT (1)
Mental Health and Substance Abuse (1)
Prevention and Wellness (18)
Programs for Families and Children (4)
Public Health and Safety (18)
Research (5)
Vaccines (1)

Celebrating our HHS Photographer of 32 Years: Chris Smith

February 21, 2023
|
By: Xavier Becerra, Secretary

Summary:
After 32 years at HHS, and 38 years in the federal government, our photographer Chris Smith is retiring.

Watch the video on Chris Smith, his life and his legacy, here.

After 32 years at HHS, and 38 years in the federal government, our photographer Chris Smith is retiring. I can speak for our whole HHS team when I say we’re going to miss seeing him around with his camera, and we’ll miss his presence.

He’s a well-known name around here, known throughout our building and across the federal government.

Image

Pictured here: Chris Smith and his camera.
Pictured here: Chris Smith and his camera.


In three decades, he’s captured history and helped tell our story to the nation. He did more than just create extraordinary images; he helped us document who we are as people, and who we are as a Department.

Because it's not just the work we do, it's the people that do the work. And thanks to his keen eye, we have an unparalleled record of what the people who've been part of HHS have done for America over the last 32 years.

Chris started at HHS in September 1990 and has served under six administrations and photographed nine HHS Secretaries. Before that, he got his introduction to the federal government at the U.S. Department of the Treasury where he worked under another trailblazer and early Black photographer in the federal government.

Chris’s father and father-in-law were both Tuskegee Airmen and his father became a fireman in D.C., Chris’s hometown. Chris attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts and discovered his love of photography through a summer youth program and by playing around in his father’s dark room.

Pictured here: Chris Smith’s father, Theodore Paul Smith, in uniform as a Tuskegee Airman.

Pictured here: Chris Smith’s father, Theodore Paul Smith, in uniform as a Tuskegee Airman.

His work is featured in the Smithsonian—this picture he took of buttons and lapel pins in support of our work to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Image

Pictured here: Photograph of AIDS button display, now featured in the Smithsonian Museum system.
Pictured here: Photograph of AIDS button display, now featured in the Smithsonian Museum system.


Chris has also taken countless headshots, including my own, and four of his Secretary portraits currently hang in the Great Hall where they will stay, enshrined in history.

That’s why I wanted to take a moment and write  a little about Chris, his life, and his work – it’s a part of history. History flows through us, and we become it. It is something worth celebrating, and something worth preserving for future generations.

Chris, thank you for preserving our history and congratulations on leaving your mark at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

We wish you a very happy retirement.

Image

Pictured here: Secretary Becerra and Chris Smith posing at the 2022 staff holiday party.
Pictured here: Secretary Becerra and Chris Smith posing at the 2022 staff holiday party.

Posted In:
Holidays and Observances

Sign Up for Email Updates

Receive the latest updates from the Secretary, Blogs, and News Releases

Sign Up

Subscribe to RSS

Receive latest updates

Subscribe to our RSS

Related Blog Posts

  • HHS staff participating in the reentry simulation.

    Looking Back: Honoring Second Chance Month at HHS

  • HHS Blog thumbnail

    Celebrating Community Health Workers

  • HHS Blog thumbnail

    Commemorating Women’s History Month – March 2023

Back to top
  • Contact HHS
  • Careers
  • HHS FAQs
  • Nondiscrimination Notice
  • HHS Archive
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy Policy
  • Viewers & Players
  • Budget/Performance
  • Inspector General
  • Web Site Disclaimers
  • EEO/No Fear Act
  • FOIA
  • The White House
  • USA.gov
  • Vulnerability Disclosure Policy

Sign Up for Email Updates

Receive the latest updates from the Secretary, Blogs, and News Releases.

Sign Up
HHS Logo

HHS Headquarters

200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Toll Free Call Center: 1-877-696-6775​