Object number2019.20.1

Patti and Robert on 23rd Street

Dateearly 1970s

Artist Judy Linn (American, born 1947)

CultureAmerican

MediumGelatin silver print, printed later

EditionArtist's proof, from an edition of 12

DimensionsImage: 8 1/2 x 12 7/8 in. (21.6 x 32.7 cm)
Sheet: 12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, Advisory Council for Photography

On View

Not on view

Period20th c

Classification(s)

Photograph

SignedOn verso, signed lower right in pencil: Judy Linn

InscribedOn verso, by artist, lower right in pencil: Patti and Robert on 23rd St / early 70ies A.P.; by unidentified hand, lower right edge: FLLAC 2019.20.1

BibliographyLinn, Judy. Patti Smith 1969-1976 / Photographs by Judy Linn; Afterword by Patti Smith. New York: Abrams Image, 2011, n.p.; Lombino, Mary-Kay. Shape of Light: Defining Photographs from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. Poughkeepsie, NY: Vassar College, 2019, p. 98 ProvenancePurchased from Janice Guy Inc.

Vassar Exhibitions

Care Everywhere: Photography and Print as a Lens on Care

Shape of Light: Defining Photographs from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center

Exhibition HistoryShape of Light: Defining Photographs from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, September 20 - December 15, 2019

Label TextIn her memoir and elegy to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Just Kids (2010), iconic rockstar Patti Smith detailed their time growing up, while taking care of each other, as young adults in 1970s New York City: “We promised that we’d never leave one another again, until we both knew we were ready to stand on our own. And this vow, through everything we were yet to go through, we kept.” Smith and Mapplethorpe would take turns working odd jobs so that the other could focus on creating art. The role of provider was determined by who was able to work and needed less time to create at a given moment, regardless of gender. What this picture doesn’t show is the person behind the camera: artist, photographer, and recently retired Vassar professor Judy Linn. In taking great care to photograph candid moments between her friends Patti and Robert, Linn captures the intimacy and closeness of their friendship, which Just Kids details so well. Photographer Nan Goldin is similarly able to capture a quiet intimacy between two subjects. She catches her friends Naomi and Colette in the midst of what looks like gossiping. In the 1970s, Goldin regularly photographed her friends at The Other Side, a drag bar in Boston, in which Goldin describes “coming to life” during her early adulthood. Goldin was completely committed to photographing her friends, and it became her whole world: “Part of my worship of them involved photographing them. I wanted to pay homage, to show them how beautiful they were…I accepted them as they saw themselves; I had no desire to unmask them with my camera.”

DescriptionBlack and white image of a nude woman and man from the waist up. She stands in front of him looking off to the right and has dark shagged hair that wisps down to her shoulders. The man's body angles slightly outward from behind her as he looks out directly at the view and drapes an arm over the woman's shoulder, resting it between her breasts. His hair is feathery and he wears bracelets and a ring on his left arm.

Terms

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu