Patti Smith: Got to Lose Control and Then You Take Control

Patti Smith gives me a portrait. (Happy Birthday, Patti)

I wasn’t expecting to post again before the New Year, but I just remembered that it was Patti Smith’s birthday.

In the summer of 2014, I was assigned by the New York Times to photograph her and Klaus Biesenbach, the director of MoMA PS1 at the time, for an article previewing a show they curated at Fort Tilden called Rockaway!

Most New York Times assignments just get dropped in your lap with very little time to get your mind around what you need to do, but in this case I had a few days. Having recently read Just Kids, I was aware of her deep creative relationship with Robert Maplethorpe and knew she would be a very discerning subject when it came to working with a photographer. I was much more intimidated than excited.

“ I don’t want you to take pictures, I want to give you a picture.”

A publicist from MoMA drove me out to the community center in the park grounds at Fort Tilden. Patti’s Land Camera polaroids were in the process of being sequencing and hung in the gallery space. She arrive…