A photograph held two unfinished artists

The young Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe made images of one another while money, materials and recognition were scarce. A photograph in this setting was not merely documentation after success. It was part of how two people tried out identities and gave one another’s work an audience.

Just Kids is Smith’s loving retrospective, written after Mapplethorpe’s death; it cannot supply his unmediated perspective or verify every private exchange. The object remains eloquent without invented interiority. Before museums and famous names, a small image could be evidence that the work—and the person making it—was worth seeing.