Lynn Goldsmith - Frank Pictures Gallery

Lynn Goldsmith Photography

Iggy Pop calls Goldsmith a true ''rock chick'' (that's a compliment), and she apparently charmed even wary legends like Bob Dylan into opening up. She also wrote songs with rockers and dated Bruce Springsteen in the '70s. But instinct is more important than access, and Goldsmith could find the frame of significance in the most banal setting. Goldsmith became a leading rock photographer at a time when women on the scene were largely dismissed as groupies. She befriended Iggy at the University of Michigan, and by her mid-20s she had shot everyone from the Velvet Underground to Led Zeppelin, and traveled to Zaire for the ''Rumble in the Jungle'' concert featuring James Brown. She had few female peers. Goldsmith worked with brainy punks like Talking Heads, but she was at her best lustily documenting the swagger and bombast of pop, whether it was Gene Simmons breathing fire or Van Halen taking a triumphant group bow. She compares rock stars to unconscious ''messengers, chosen by us to play out our passions.'' In her snapshot of Sting riding a motorcycle in 1981, you can see Goldsmith on the back of the bike through his rear view mirror, camera in hand, affirming that behind every great rock star are some mythmaking photographers.
From the New York Times Review of Rock Portraits by Lynn Goldsmith, reviewed by Sia Mitchell, published
December 2, 2007.

Beastie Boys, NYC, 1986

Self Portraits: In The Looking Glass

Questions of identity are explored through self-portrayals. I act out various roles, by injecting myself into different settings which originate with window dressings. After making photographs of the windows, I remove elements and create a fictional narrative which dictates not only the creation of new images that are added to the scene, but often times, other characters. After doing hair on makeup on myself, I enter the vacant world of the mannequin. By creating different looks, adopting multiple roles, I mean to fracture the solitary sense of self, to propose identity as multiple projections of the invented self. Exploiting what is theatricality inherent in photographic media, I adopt persona from mass media, myths, and cinema to focus on the question: what is real and what is imagined? - Lynn Goldsmith

Lynn Goldsmith's work has appeared on the covers of Life, Newsweek, Time, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, People, and Elle, among others. She has published ten photographic books and been on the New York Times Best Seller List. Goldsmith was also the youngest woman admitted to the DGA for directing the first network television concert series: ABC IN Concert. Lynn has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions both in the US and abroad. Her latest highly acclaimed book ROCK AND ROLL was launched with a major retrospective at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Goldsmith is the recipient of the Lucien Clergue and The World Press Award among others. Her photographs are included in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian, The Polaroid Collection, The Kodak Collection and The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Photography. Two of her videos are included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In addition to being an accomplished photographer, Goldsmith topped the charts in the UK as an 'optic-music' artist under her aka Will Powers.