Patti Smith 1969-1976

Before she was a world-renowned singer-songwriter and dubbed “The Godmother of Punk,” Patti Smith was a struggling poet posing for the lens of photographer Judy Linn. In intimate portraits of an artist as a young woman, Linn captures Smith at her most vulnerable, as a raw performer on the verge of becoming an iconic artist. Linn’s photographs offer a fascinating document of Smith’s maturation into one of the most influential women of her generation while also spotlighting her close relationships with other artists, including Robert Mapplethorpe and Sam Shepard. This book captures a moment lost in time, when a poet experimenting with music crossed paths with a young artist experimenting with photography. A must-have for anyone interested in the evolution of an artist, Patti Smith 1969-1976 showcases the collaboration between Smith and Linn that rewrote the definition of what it means to be a woman and an artist.

Judy Linn is a photographer who is represented by Feature Inc. Gallery. Her work is in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Detroit Art Institute, and the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. She lives in New York City.