Photographer Rodney Smith, who sadly passed away in 2016 at the age of sixty-eight, made work that was not only technically flawless but filled with a sense of caprice and delight at being alive.

1621: Sir Francis Bacon is imprisoned in the Tower of London for one night. 1659: The Netherlands, England and France sign Treaty of The Hague. 1669: The last entry in Samuel Pepys’s diary.