The work of Kate Simon, a New York-based photographer, documents the artists, poets, musicians, and writers of New York City during the 1970s and 1980s. She has photographed Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, and several others. The Clash’s first album cover is one of Simon’s famous photographs of the emerging punk rock scene.
Simon photographed Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe outside a New York building in 1978. Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” music video was shot the following year, in 1979. While working for Warhol’s publication, Interview magazine, she photographed Andy Warhol reading a newspaper. Later, her photographs of the era’s pop culture icons were credited for having a “humanizing touch.” She also worked for Creem magazine.
The Face magazine hired Simon as its photographer in 1981. In 1983, she was assigned the first official Madonna photoshoot, which took place on Simon’s Manhattan roof.
Madonna arrived at my studio in New York with her friend Debi Mazar, I was taking her photograph for The Face. I took them both up to the roof, because I like the available light. I shot one roll of black and white. Madonna was a dream subject! Every frame on the roll is good.
