In the 60’s and 70’s Patti Smith used Polaroids for her collages, but then she gave her camera to Robert Mapplethorpe.
After the death of her husband she started taking pictures again, attracted by the immediacy of a Polaroid. She always uses one of two 1960’s Polaroid Land Cameras, the Land 100 or the Land 250.
Her first show as a photographer took place at the Art Market Gallery in 1995. She shared the exhibition with her friend, painter and poet Janet Hamill.