Souvenirs Of A Joyful Solitude
January 19, 2012 1 Comment
Patti Smith is an artist whose rejection of traditional femininity, combined with her iconic status, has had a tangible effect on women of the arts, as well as my generation.
Patti Smith’s Camera Solo, a collection of the musician’s polaroid photographs published to coincide with a US exhibition of the same collection, are about the inanimate objects that make up Smith’s life.
Smith’s polaroids, like her music, are personal. Taken with a Land 100 and Land 250 Polaroid, the photographs are “souvenirs of a joyful solitude,” an image of what a person notices while seeking quiet. There is no nod to fashion in this collection, amongst photos of statues and shoes, and everyday objects. Which seems appropriate to me, as the photographer has never embraced the status quo.
The first time I remember seeing Patti Smith perform was on TV sometime in the late 1980s. Like a lot of young girls, I was surrounded with images of women whose appearance was sculpted to appeal to a male-dominated society, and whose physical presence was reduced to prettiness and prescribed displays of emotion. To see a woman totally absorbed in her music and whose physical presence was organic and unapologetic was, for me, a welcome change.
We need more Patti Smiths in the world, but sadly there’s only one.
Contact the author here: miriam@morningquickie.com
Adore her. Everything she is, and does.