Visual art / Music
Lynn Goldsmith
born 1948 · photographer, recording artist, film director
Detroit-born rock and celebrity photographer, a University of Michigan graduate, whose portrait of Prince became the center of a landmark 2023 Supreme Court copyright case.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Also known as
- Will Powers
- Detroit years
- 1948–about 1970
- Field
- Visual art, Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Lynn Goldsmith was born in Detroit in 1948 and graduated from the University of Michigan in three years, magna cum laude, with degrees in English and psychology. Moving into the music world, she became one of the best-known rock photographers of the 1970s and 1980s, with portraits of stars from Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith to Prince, and she directed music films and television. She won a World Press Photo award in 1985, and her work has been published in books by Taschen, Rizzoli and Abrams. In the 1980s she also wrote and recorded songs under the name Will Powers. Her 1981 photograph of Prince, which Andy Warhol used for a series of silkscreens, led to Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court case on the limits of fair use that she won.
Highlights
- University of Michigan graduate in English and psychology
- World Press Photo award (1985)
- Recorded as Will Powers in the 1980s
- Prevailed in Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith at the U.S. Supreme Court (2023)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1960s
University of Michigan
She graduated here in three years, magna cum laude, in English and psychology.