Patti Smith: Dream of Life

2008.Twelve yearsin the making, the first film directed by fashion photographer Steven Sebring stitches togetherlayer upon layerof humanexperience to paint a portrait of Patti Smith, the artist as a tireless and dynamic worker for music, poetry, peace, family and friends.


At the Chelsea Hotel, he just followed me around endlessly, taking photographs. You know, he was figuring things out, which he did very quickly. After a short period of time, he knew exactly what he wanted. He wasn''t a snapshot guy. And he wasn''t a guy who did motor-driving. He took 12 pictures or he''d take six. He knew what he wanted, and when he got it, that was it. He never labored. I always think it''s funny when people want to take my picture now and they tell me how much they like Robert, and then they want to take 300 pictures to get one shot. And I always say, after they take the eighth one, by now, the cover of Horses would have been done.

Did seeing how his photographs captured you affect your own perspective? Or surprise you?

No, because I just was the way that I was. I could see how much he cared for me in his pictures. So that''s still something that I see when I look at a photograph that Robert took of me. I know what''s in his mind. I know the aspect of me that he saw in that photograph, that maybe someone else wouldn''t have seen. He was my boyfriend for some years, and then we evolved in different ways and we were best friends.

Recently in Aperture magazine, you published some photographs of your own. How long have you been taking pictures?

I''ve taken pictures throughout the years. After Fred died, I picked up the Polaroid camera and started taking meditative still lifes. It was a way of dealing with the complexity of my feelings or grieving. I wasn''t able to write, because the things that I was processing - losing Robert and then Richard Sohl, my piano player, then Fred, then my brother - I could hardly speak about it. Taking photographs was a very abstract and silent way of dealing with my feelings.

When I started going back on the road, I find when I''m performing and singing on the rivers of the road, it''s very hard to write. But it''s a very good place to take photographs, and especially because you visit so many interesting places. Therefore, I have pictures of Keats''s bed and Virginia Woolf''s desk or Hermann Hesse''s typewriter. I might be in 30 countries in 40 days, so it gives me all of these different points of view. When you''re performing, my concern is how the people are doing. Are they having fun? Are they being challenged? Are we building an interesting night? Are we communicating? So it''s very nice for me to have something that''s just mine, that I can do in solitary. I really just like going off down an alley somewhere, finding a little church or courtyard or child or something and just having a moment that''s mine.

Frame grab from the "Dream of Life", with Patti Smith laying flowers at the grave of William Blake. They have this synergy that I envy. Smith released a new poem yesterday - it is (would be, should be) for you.

the white coyote

I dreamed we met on the Spanish steppes
But we were not in Spain
And we were not in Rome
We were far afield
Opening onto yet another field
Separated by a half hearted fence
You had a red and white car
A convertible
You lapsed into Spanish
And spoke of your ride
Into the unknown
I felt I did not know you
And found myself wishing
You would depart
Then I saw a white coyote
Just there beyond
I grabbed your sleeve
And we watched it together
It did not bolt when it saw us
It lifted its white head
And it sang to the sky
And I knew you

Dan Graham, Rock My Religion

Patti Smith''s Dream of Life

Patti Smith dream of life
Patti Smith dream of life
Patti Smith dream of life
Patti Smith dream of life
photos