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How do people react when they find out you're Lynn Goldsmith?
[Laughs.] "They usually want to know what it’s like to have met some of the people I’ve met."
What first got you interested in photography?
"When I was about six years old my dad would take me into his darkroom and I would help him move paper from one tray to another. When the image appeared in the developer I thought it was magic."
How did you get to take pictures of so many celebrities? I mean you were Michael Jackson’s personal photographer and you did photo books on Bruce Springsteen!
"And a lot of other people. That’s because I guess I was good at it and people hired me. If [another photographer] happened across Michael Jackson and he had liked his picture, he would be Michael Jackson’s photographer."
Who was your favorite famous person to photograph and why?
“I can’t really name one specific person. There are different people for different reasons. Some people really like being photographed and are easy to photograph. They are physically beautiful and respond well to the camera. There have been people I’ve photographed who were beautiful — high-paid models — but were really unpleasant people. I didn't enjoy that. So being beautiful is not a prerequisite. Some people are so smart and funny, like Frank Zappa, or various newscasters — all kinds of people. I’ve photographed people who are unattractive physically but their spirit is so beautiful they’re really the most enjoyable memories for me. It changes in my mind all the time who are my favorites.”
How about a favorite event?
“I’ve covered a lot of events where there were lots of other photographers, whether it was the Olympics, or whether it was when Lady Di got married in England. Those really aren’t that pleasant because there are so many photographers, you have to figure out how to do something different. It’s very stressful. My favorite event is a Kiss concert. First of all, much of the audience is dressed up like members of Kiss. It makes a great photo op. When you photograph a show there are so many explosions and they fly through the air and Gene [Simmons] swallows fire. It’s like photographing the circus.”
What’s your funniest story from your photography career?
“I was photographing a great dancer, [Mikhail] Baryshnikov. I was dancing around while shooting and I tripped over my feet and I fell. I thought I was pretty funny to try to be dancing in front of Baryshnikov.”
You’ve covered earthquakes and wars. What was the scariest thing you had to shoot?
“I was doing a story on a New York police precinct. I got overexcited when we were chasing some supposed robbers. I actually ran past the first police officer, and the person we were chasing turned around and shot at me. That was the closest I ever came to ever getting hit by a bullet. I didn’t know at the time that when you run you have to run in an “S” shape, you keep swerving. You don’t run straight and make yourself a target.”
Have your photography assignments ever made you sad?
“Yes, lots of times. It’s not pleasant to see people die. That’s one thing. Or to photograph them dying in a really horrific way. That stays with you forever. I’ve also been saddened by seeing how people treat one another when they’re trying to get near a very famous person, whether it’s the Dalai Lama or a rock star or movie star. I’m saddened by the fact that people don’t have the same respect or admiration for the person standing next to them, who they push and shove and treat like they’re not valuable human beings.”
Why do you like still photography better than filmmaking?
“A number of reasons. It’s easier to do by myself. And the results are more immediate. The other reason is I like the idea of being able to put a whole story in one frame. I think that’s very challenging."
What is it that you like about digital photography?
“It makes it even more immediate. You don’t have to wait for your film to come back from the lab or process your film in the darkroom. Another aspect is you can download that image into your computer. You don’t need to send it off and you can make a print and have it just moments later.
It’s also real easy to make pictures and put them in an e-mail and keep up communication with friends and family who you might not be able to spend as much time with as you like. You can show them what your world is all about.”
How have computers changed your photography?
“For better and for worse. For worse because I spend more time on the computer when I might have been out shooting. Now there are so many things you can do to the image in the computer. It’s very exciting to be able to make something in your camera, and then a whole other creative process can happen. That’s what Photoshop has allowed one to do. In fact, it’s possible not be a photographer yet to be a Photoshop artist.”
What advice would you give to someone who wants a career in photography?
“The first thing they should do, because our future is definitely going to be digital, is to get as well acquainted with the computer as possible. And if you can create Photoshop skills for yourself then, in all likelihood, you can get a job interning for a photographer to see what it’s all about and how they do it. But the most important thing if someone wants a career as a photographer is they have to feel that this is their passion. It becomes a kind of “do or die” feeling. There are a lot of people out there who look to this as an exciting and glamorous and financially rewarding career. Only the ones who really feel that their life would be incomplete without making this their way of earning a living, their way of living their life — those will be the ones who figure out how to do it.”
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Lynn Goldsmith is a multi-awarded portrait photographer whose work has appeared on and between the covers of Life, Newsweek, Time, Rollingstone, Sports Illustrated, People, Elle, Interview, US, Bunte, Paris Match, etc. Her subjects have varied from entertainment personalities to sports stars, from film directors to authors, from the extra-ordinary to the ordinary man on the street. Her thirty years of photography have not only been an investigation into the nature of the human spirit, but also into the natural wonders of our planet.
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