Patti Smith

Patti Smith enters this account through a conversation about photographs and the social world of the 1970s: Robert Mapplethorpe tells Andy Warhol that he has just photographed Smith, his former girlfriend, and that Vogue already has the pictures. The brief mention makes her presence in the diary one of personal history and image circulation rather than a direct encounter with Warhol.

A Former Relationship Recalled

At a dinner at Clemente’s, Warhol and Mapplethorpe talked about people from the 1970s. Warhol asked Mapplethorpe about Smith, identifying her as his old girlfriend. Mapplethorpe’s reply that he had just photographed her connects their past relationship to a present-day exchange, though the diary offers no further account of their history or the circumstances of the shoot.

Photographs Already in Circulation

Warhol immediately asked why the photographs had not gone to Interview. Mapplethorpe answered that Vogue already had them. The exchange establishes that Smith had recently been photographed and that the images were already associated with a major fashion publication; it does not say what the photographs showed or how Smith regarded them. She remains a concise but vivid figure in the entry: remembered through a former relationship, then located in the circulation of photographs.