Pennie Smith
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Pennie Smith is a renowned rock photographer born in London, England. She is specialised in black and white photography.
Smith attended Twickenham Art school in the late 1960s, studying graphics and fine art. With others, she collaborated with graphic designer, Barney Bubbles and music journalist, Nick Kent in producing Friends magazine from 1969 to 1972. Her first major photographic commission was to cover a 1970s Led Zeppelin tour. Smith went on to work at the NME as staff photographer until the early 1980s.
In her career, Smith has photographed some of rock music's icons and legends, including: Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Iggy Pop, The Clash, The Jam, Debbie Harry, U2, Morrissey, The Stone Roses, Primal Scream, Manic Street Preachers, Radiohead, Oasis and The Strokes.
In addition to her portrait work, some of rock's defining moments have been captured by her whilst covering tours with musicians. Perhaps her most famous photograph is that of The Clash’s Paul Simonon smashing his bass guitar on the stage in New York during a 1979 tour. The photograph went on to be used on the cover of the Clash album, London Calling, and received Q magazine’s "Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Photograph of All-Time" award in 2002.
Smith's work has appeared on the covers and pages of the NME, on album sleeves, promotional material and has featured in books. In 1980 her best selling book, The Clash, Before and After, was published.
Smith currently lives and works in a disused railway station in West London, which she bought and converted into a studio whilst she was a student, and freelances in black and white reportage photography.
[edit] Bibliography
- Smith, Pennie. 1980. The Clash: Before and After / photographs by Pennie Smith ; with passing comments by Joe Strummer...[et al.], Boston : Little, Brown. 1st Amer. ed. ISBN 0-31680-169-0
[edit] External links
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