While in Barbados I read Patti Smith’s new book Just Kids. The book is a memoir of Patti’s early years in New York and her relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorp. I couldn’t put it down. The evolution of Patti’s unique style was beautifully organic. Her look essentially came from her original spirit and also imaginative necessity.
Patti got pissed when people called her a Joan Baez knock off so she took scissors to her own hair in order to lose the hippie/folk look she had come to New York with. When it came time to shoot a cover photo for her first album Horses, Patti went over to Robert’s house and had him take a few pictures (top photo). He shot her in natural light and Patti styled herself, bringing over a few white button down shirts that she had picked up at a local Salvation Army. Proving that creating something original doesn’t take a lot of money or designer brands.
When we saw Patti talk at the New York Public Library last week she spoke at length about how the artist is the relic and the objects of the artist, their typewriter, their desk, are second degree relics. A photo of their typewriter might be a third degree relic. It made me think that if every object in our lives had symbolic meaning we would live in a much less dispensable world. And maybe a much more authentic one.
Patti got pissed when people called her a Joan Baez knock off so she took scissors to her own hair in order to lose the hippie/folk look she had come to New York with. When it came time to shoot a cover photo for her first album Horses, Patti went over to Robert’s house and had him take a few pictures (top photo). He shot her in natural light and Patti styled herself, bringing over a few white button down shirts that she had picked up at a local Salvation Army. Proving that creating something original doesn’t take a lot of money or designer brands.
When we saw Patti talk at the New York Public Library last week she spoke at length about how the artist is the relic and the objects of the artist, their typewriter, their desk, are second degree relics. A photo of their typewriter might be a third degree relic. It made me think that if every object in our lives had symbolic meaning we would live in a much less dispensable world. And maybe a much more authentic one.
