A
few decades later—after graduating Magna Cum Laude from the University of
Michigan with a B.A. in English and Psychology, founding LGI Photo Agency (one
of the first agencies to specialize in servicing celebrity portraiture for editorial
usage), and briefly recording music under the name Will Powers—Goldsmith
is still most famous for photographing musicians like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards,
Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, David Byrne, The Police, Miles Davis and countless others.
"It used to make me angry to be called a rock-and-roll photographer. . .the term
was pejorative," Goldsmith explains. But these days she doesn't seem to mind the
label all that much. "You tend to photograph what you like. Musicians were always
my dominant subject matter because it felt like I was simply hanging out with
friends, even family."
Today, Goldsmith is recognized as an acclaimed portrait photographer and photojournalist
whose subjects include not only musicians but actors, sports stars, politicians,
authors and directors as well. She has published seven photographic books, including
PhotoDiary, a personal collection of photographs and stories from her years
spent chronicling various stars of the music world; Bruce Springsteen: Access
All Areas; and Flower, a lavish coffee-table book centered around her
most recent photographic passion. "As I watched the flowers push their way to
the surface," she writes in the book's introduction, "I knew they would die with
the coming of fall, and it gave me an urge for life, life beyond celebrities,
beyond New York City or Hollywood."
