Patti Smith, 1969-1976 /

Before Patti Smith became a rock star, she loved to pose as one for her friend, the photographer Judy Linn. These 100 grainy, gritty, black and white photographs-of Smith working, playing, primping in the clutter of her apartment; surrounded by erstwhile lovers, the artist Robert Mapplethorpe and playwright Sam Shepard-brim with bright light and the obvious affection between photographer and subject. Linn, a photography professor at Vassar College whose work is now collected in the Whitney Museum and elsewhere, recalls a summer spent poring over Alfred Stieglitz's work, including the portraits of his wife Georgia O'Keefe ("I thought I could memorize it and crack its grammar"). She describes learning from the "visual logic" and "illogical brilliance" of her own photos-and it's easy to see why. The photographs vary in quality, but at their best-take the nudes of Smith where a dark necktie and belt bisect and play against her long, pale body-capture Mapplethorpe and Smith's youth and earnestness, their wildness and vulnerability. Here is Smith's acclaimed 2010 memoir, Just Kids, come to life-the shrines to Bob Dylan, the dressup-and the photos strike the same wistful note; as Smith writes in her afterword: "once upon a time, we were young and beautiful and anyone we imagined we could be." (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.