Patti smith: a book of days

In 2018, with no plan or agenda for what might happen next, Patti Smith posted her first photo on Instagram: her hand with the simple message "Hello everybody!" Known for taking pictures with her beloved 250 Land Camera, Smith began publishing pictures from her phone, including portraits of her children, her heater, her boots and her Abyssinian cat, Cairo. Followers felt an instant affinity with these miniature windows into Smith’s world, photos of her daily coffee, the books she reads, and the tombs of her favourite heroes: William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Simone Weil, and Albert Camus. Over time, a more coherent story began to take shape of a life dedicated to art, and more than a million followers responded to Smith’s unique aesthetic represented in images that showed her passions, commitments, obsessions, and whims. The originals featured in this book are old photographs: anniversary pearls, her mother’s keychain, her ex-husband's Mosrite guitar. Here you’ll also find never-before-seen photos of her life in and outside of her career, in train stations, dark cafés, and a notebook always close by. In extensive but intimate daily entries, Smith shares communiqués from her travels all around the world.

With 365 photos, "A Book of Days" is a new way to experience the expansive mind of the poet, writer, and visionary performer. Hopeful, elegant, fun, and encompassing with an introduction by Smith exploring her documentary process, "A Book of Days" is a timeless offer for deeply uncertain times, an inspiring map of the life of an artist.

Language: English.