JUDY LINN, Patti and Robert in bed at the Chelsea, 1970s, silver gelatin print
IN BED WITH PATTI
Intimate photos taken from the bohemian life of Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe and friends in New York in the seventies
Last year, Patti Smith, icon of the punk rock movement, poet and visual artist, published her memoir “Just Kids”. In an empathetic yet unsentimental manner, she writes about how she came to New York to get a fresh start as an artist in the seventies and above all describes her innocently tender yet ambivalent relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The book soon became a literary sensation, bringing Smith the National Book Award.
The iconic pictures in the book were provided by JUDY LINN. As a close friend of Smith and Mapplethorpe, the New York photographer had captured the atmosphere of those early days in intimate photo sessions: Patti in a petticoat, cool with a cigarette, in bed with Robert… With her work series “Patti Smith – 1969 to 1976”, she leads us straight into the perfectly bohemian life at the Chelsea Hotel, before punk and new wave came up. These unique photos depict the era before Patti Smith emerged as an icon of rock music, when, with her friends, she sought her way through life during the wild times in New York without a dime in her pocket. Back then, the Times Square still was a sleazy red-light district, with dimly lit bars and great music playing in underground clubs – not to forget the exploding gay scene. Also on the artistic level, “the kids” were still trying to find their way. They would hang out with Andy Warhol and his entourage at the legendary Max’s Kansas City. Friendships arose with Sam Shepard, Janis Joplin, Allen Ginsberg and many other artists of that time.
Actually, Judy Linn was also one of these “wild kids“. Equipped with her Leica, she always accompanied Patti, Robert and their friends, discovering photography for herself: "I took these photographs before I knew how. In the beginning, it wasn't so much about how we were but who we wanted to be. Made without words or reason, they became an imaginary future. I can only remember the desire that created them - a private desire I learned from a childhood spent watching movies on tv. On a perfect Saturday afternoon I did not read books, I did not go outside. I watched tv and drew."
Judy Linn was born in Detroit in 1947 (one year after Patti Smith). She is professor of photography at the Vasser College in N.Y. State and lives in New York City. In 2011, her book “Patti Smith 1969-1976, Photographs by Judy Linn” was published by ABRAMS IMAGE, New York.
Further reading:
Patti Smith “Just Kids“, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2010
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