Lynn Goldsmith

Lynn Goldsmith is an award winning portrait photographer whose work has appeared in Life, Newsweek, Time, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, People, Elle, Interview and numerous other publications. She is one of the only notable female rock photographers from the 70′s, when most women “on the scene” were seen as groupies and “band-aids”. She has photographed Sting, Bob Dylan, and Patti Smith just to name a few rock legends, and was called a true “rock chick” by Iggy Pop.

Beyond her photographic achievements, she is the youngest inductee to the Director’s Guild of America – having served as director of Joshua Television, the first company to do video magnification for rock groups entertaining at large venues. By the early 80′s Lynn left the worlds of photography and film to become a recording artist. Under the name Will Powers, she signed with Island Records as the first optic-music artist. She has written songs with Sting, Steve Winwood, Todd Rundgren and Nile Rogers, and dated Bruce Springsteen for a while in the 70′s.’

An impressive biography, wouldn’t you all agree? I thought so, which would explain why I went into Frank Pictures Gallery with such high expectations.

The exhibit was actually two bodies of work separated by “Icons of Rock”, and “Self Portraits: Into the Looking Glass.

“Icons of Rock consisted of small single portraits of Debbie Harry, Bono, Dylan, Cher, James Brown, The Beastie Boys and about 10 or so others, along with composite photographs made up of hundreds of tiny performance photos, arranged so that they made a mosaic portrait of the subject when the viewer stood back a bit (think Chuck Close). Could have been clever except for the fact there are so many computer programs that could do that for you; but the amount of photographs was impressive. Goldsmith must have photographed Kiss at least 3 times to get that portrait of Gene Simmons done. These.. were great. All nice images of rock stars.

“Self Portraits: Into the Looking Glass” consists of composite photographs where the artist has inserted herself into a “make-believe” situation, complete with intricate props. One is reminded of Cindy Sherman, except that Sherman’s self depiction is done with the intent to explore the feminine role in society, while Goldsmith’s intent is… well… I have no idea what it is, even after reading her statement. All sets are masterfully lit and attractively arranged. Throughout is Lynn Goldsmith’s mug, photo-retouched to the point of looking like the Katherine Helmond in Brazil – with a face so stretched from face lifts she can barely put her lips together.

To be honest I really didn’t know what to think of the exhibition in it’s entirety. If the two halves hadn’t been in the same room, it would have been an entirely different experience. But as it was – all I could think was that this was a woman who had been around celebrities her whole life as someone behind the camera, and now older, is using photography to create false memories that are deeply mingled with her fantasies. What was a bit disturbing to me was the amount of retouching. That a sixty year old woman was juxtaposing her face onto the form of a mannequin just screamed insecurity, and maybe even a touch of regret. What was very disturbing to me, is that this work was curated with photographs the artist had done of celebrities… as if the more personal work couldn’t stand on it’s own legs without the “cult of personality” that had been such a large part of the artists earlier life.

In her statement Goldsmith writes: “After doing hair and 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 theatrically 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?”

Honestly, I cannot deduce that Goldmsith has done anything that a soft stylist and a makeup artist or two hasn’t done. I really don’t see anything besides a very grown up woman playing dress up, except that she has replaced the role playing with a vacant airbrushed look – which is nothing I couldn’t see in the pages of Vogue magazine.

All images courtesy Frank Pictures Gallery