Heide Smith took up photography as a young girl in Germany in 1948, when her uncle gave her a Zeiss Ikon camera. Gaining diplomas in photography and advertising, she began her career as an industrial photographer before moving into photojournalism, working for daily papers and magazines. After moving to England in 1963, she worked as a freelance photographer. In 1971 she emigrated to Australia, working initially in Sydney as a photojournalist and later as a technical supervisor in a professional colour laboratory in Melbourne. Seven years later she moved to Canberra, where she established a studio that operated until 1997, endearing herself to the local population through her books I Love Canberra (1983) and I Love Canberra II (1986). In early 1998 she moved to Narooma, NSW, where she continues to take portrait photographs, travel Australia on corporate assignments, and publish books. In 2004 she returned to the Tiwi Islands north of Darwin to gather material for a follow-up book to her Tiwi: The Life and Art of Australia's Tiwi People (1990, 1996).
