Patti Smith

“Just Kids”—that’s how musician Patti Smith described the longtime love and friendship she and fellow artist, Robert Mapplethorpe, shared in her 2010 memoir. The rebellious pair met on the eve of the 1970s and lived together in New York’s Chelsea Hotel. During their extended stay at the Chelsea, a friend lent Mapplethorpe a Polaroid camera, and he was instantly drawn to the medium. Soon enough, Smith became one of Mapplethorpe’s most beloved subjects, and she even used his portrait of her 1975 for her debut album, Horses. In her memoir, Smith encapsulates the bohemian photographer’s intuitive gaze writing, “He [Mapplethorpe] took about 12 pictures. By the eighth one, he said, “‘I got it.’”