Celebrity history- Patti Smith by Robert Maplethorpe
The 1970’s brought artists of every kind to the Pines including Patti Smith a singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses.
Photographer Robert Maplethorpe
would photograph his friend Patti and more as they became part of the creative culture of the Pines.
Lovers, friends, colleagues, collaborators, coconspirators, roommates, inspiration–all of those apply, yet individually, barely scratch the surface of describing their deep connection.
Mapplethorpe and Smith met the day that Smith moved to New York City in the summer of 1967. He would go on to become one of the most significant photographers of the 20th century, she, a legendary singer-songwriter and poet inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In between, the magic of their connection never waned. It withstood Smith leaving New York for Detroit in 1979 to live with former MC5 guitarist Fred “Sonic” Smith, whom she would marry. It has endured beyond Mapplethorpe’s death in 1989 at age 42, during the prime of his career, from complications of AIDS…
