Mark Smith has been a photographer since 1983, starting out as a press photographer for the Hawke’s Bay Herald Tribune and finishing his training with the New Zealand Herald.

Smith has been operating as a freelance photographer since 1989, with work appearing in many national and international magazines and newspapers.

Smith has also maintained a strong commitment to his personal photographic practice, exhibiting regularly over the years in both public and alternative spaces.

In 1999 Smith formed CAKE Collective, along with his sister Deborah Smith and friend Victoria Ferguson, an urban poster exhibition of which there have been five so far, the last being executed in late 2002. CAKE's commitment is to presenting photographic imagery to a wide, egalitarian audience.

In 2000 Smith published the book Neil Finn: Once Removed, released internationally with Sanctuary Publishing. The book received much publicity and acclaim in New Zealand and overseas.

In more recent years Smith has revisited the genre of portrait photography. In April 2002 he began a long-term plan of photographing a wide cross-section of the community, primarily to create an archival record. Smith continues to work for several magazines and is based in Auckland, New Zealand.