Whether it’s Robert Mapplethorpe’s sleeve photo for ‘Horses’ or the cover of Time Out, we’re used to seeing Patti Smith in front of the camera. But next spring Londoners will get a chance to see the world through the singer’s own lens, as 17 of her photographs go on display at Dulwich Picture Gallery.
Visit the gallery’s exhibition of work by Vanessa Bell and you’ll also find a smaller show called ‘Legacy: Photographs by Vanessa Bell and Patti Smith’. Smith’s photos document her residency at Charleston, Bell’s house in Sussex, in 2003, with subjects including Bell’s bed and library. They’ll be displayed alongside Bell’s own photo albums (on loan from the Tate Archives) which capture the Bloomsbury Group of artists, writers and thinkers before the war. It sounds like a fascinating coming together of two groundbreaking artists, so if you’re heading south this spring, don’t miss out.