Smith took photographs of many of punk's early protagonists including Poly Styrene, Siouxsie Sioux and Jordan Mooney, but her most iconic image was for the album London’s Calling by The Clash. The front cover features bassist Paul Simonon about to smash his Fender Precision Bass guitar against the stage at the Palladium in New York City in September 1979. Simonon explained that he smashed the bass out of frustration when he learned that the bouncers at the concert would not allow the audience members to stand up out of their seats: “I wasn’t taking it out on the bass guitar, cos there ain’t anything wrong with it.”
Originally Smith did not want the photograph to be used. She thought that it was too out of focus, but Strummer and graphic designer Ray Lowry thought it would make a good album cover. In 2002, her picture was named the best rock and roll photograph of all time by Q magazine, commenting that “it captures the ultimate rock’n’roll moment – total loss of control”.
She first met The Clash in 1976. She recalls: “They knew my work through NME. I think they decided I was the photographer for them because I could do in pictures what they made in noise.” She stayed with them throughout their US tour in 1979, and a book of her Clash photographs, The Clash Before And After, was published in 1980 by Eel Pie Publishing.
She is typically modest about her contribution towards one of the most iconic images in rock: “I don’t think I created their image – I just added atmosphere and perhaps the setting to the image they already had.”
In her subsequent career she has photographed The Jam, Iggy Pop, the Rolling Stones, Debbie Harry, U2, Morrissey, Blur, Oasis and Radiohead. She continues to freelance in black and white reportage photography.
