Just Kids

Of New York City in the late 1960s, Smith says she feels "no danger in the city" (30) and "never encounter[s] any" (30), despite living on the streets for her first few weeks there. For Smith, the city possesses a kind of magic that allows for frequent, serendipitous encounters, such as meeting Mapplethorpe and getting their loft across the street from the Chelsea Hotel. In the late 1960s, and into the 1970s, New York experienced a period of economic decay that left many parts of the city in disrepair, and thus fairly affordable. Mapplethorpe and Smith's first loft, an entire second floor on Hall Street, has walls "smeared with blood" (43) and an "oven crammed with discarded syringes" (43), though the rent is only $8 a month, roughly $500 in today's currency. Though Mapplethorpe and Smith experience a few break-ins, the reward of living in the city far outweighs the risks. For many young artists, like Mapplethorpe and Smith, having cheaper rent allows them to work less and devote more time to their art. 

New York's relative affordability creates a social atmosphere hospitable to interconnected networks of underground artists. As Smith explains, New York at this time does "not seem to be oppressive to anyone" (27). Through places like the Chelsea Hotel, Max's Kansas City, and CBGB, Smith and Mapplethorpe find it fairly easy to meet more established artists who serve as mentors and collaborators. These include people like Sandy Daley, the artist who gives Mapplethorpe his first Polaroid camera, Allen Ginsburg, William Burroughs, and Lenny Kaye, who serves as Smith's first guitar accompanist. As Mapplethorpe leverages his connections, they meet people involved in the New York art scene's upper echelons who serve as powerful patron, such as John McKendry and Sam Wagstaff. 

Both Mapplethorpe and Smith have close relationships to religion from a young age; this will influence their artistic work in later years. As a child, Smith "swiftly accepted the notion of God" (5) in a more poetic and spiritual sense than a dogmatic one. She imagines God as a "presence above us, in continual motion, like liquid stars" (5) and soon engages in mouthing "long letters to God" (5). Smith continues this practice of praying in adolescence and adulthood as she often prays for friends in need and pens prayer-like odes to her idols. Smith is, by her own admission, "superstitious" (25), attaching significance to dates, people, and places. For example, Smith believes Monday is "a good day to arrive in New York City" (25) because both she and Mapplethorpe were born on a Monday. Because of her superstition, Smith often ritualizes her actions, hoping this will bring her good luck. When attempting to write her monograph on Rimbaud, Smith places a "picture of Joan of Arc, a copy of Paris Spleen, [a] pen, and a bottle of ink" (227) around a candle to summon her muse. Recognizing these tendencies, Mapplethorpe often gives Smith gifts with superstitious significance.

Mapplethorpe considers the vestiges of his Catholic upbringing a "yoke" (62) that he continuously tries to cast off, though religious images and themes continue to penetrate his work. In one of Mapplethorpe's early efforts to do this, he constructs a wooden box with the face of Christ inside and "the face of the Devil, with his extended tongue" (62) on the inner lid. To Smith's horror, Mapplethorpe hopes to summon Satan, whom Mapplethorpe hopes will "grant him fame and fortune" (63). Mapplethorpe's efforts tend towards the darker elements, eventually exploring sadomasochistic imagery, like a photograph of a "guy shoving nails in his dick" (236). As Mapplethorpe drifts further into these explorations, Smith feels that "Mapplethorpe's aesthetic became so consuming" (71) it shifted the world they shared towards a world dominated by his views.