Jason Schmidt is a photographer and director who specializes in portraits of artists. He has photographed over 800 contemporary artists since 1995. Artists and Artists II (Steidl) were published in 2007 and 2015. His work has been exhibited at APalazzo Gallery, Brescia, Italy; Deitch Projects, New York City; The Margulies Collection, Miami; and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
His first film THE CANDY FACTORY (2024, 20 minutes), co-directed with Cory Jacobs, follows a creative held together by collaboration and the efforts of a woman who is part landlady, part fairy godmother. The film won Best Documentary Short at the Provincetown International Film Festival and was awarded a Special Mention by the International Documentary Association at the 41st IDA Documentary Awards in Los Angeles. The film was released by The New Yorker in 2025, becoming their best performing documentary of the year.
