At Sarasota's Selby Gardens, flowers and friendship take root in new photo exhibit
By Cathy Carter
July 13, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT
Lynn Goldsmith's "Shared Light" takes visitors on a garden pathway lined with fine art photographs of flowers. Inside, images of the gardens' artist in residence, rock legend Patti Smith, hang next to equally dramatic floral images.
You may not recognize the name Lynn Goldsmith, but chances are you've seen her work. The photographer has captured some of the most iconic images in rock 'n' roll and contributed for years to Rolling Stone magazine.
These days, she's shifted her lens to flowers. Both of her passions are featured in a new indoor-outdoor exhibit, "Shared Light," at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota.
WUSF's Cathy Carter met up with the artist to talk about her show, which combines floral imagery with photos of Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Patti Smith.
Lynn, in this show at Selby Gardens, you juxtapose photographs of Patti Smith from the 1970s with some more recent photographs of flowers. What was your thinking behind this exhibition?
So, since Patti Smith does an artist residency here, I thought that to connect the photographs that I made 50 years ago with these flower images, I would show how flowers and friendship reflect upon each other. What are the similarities in both? That's why the exhibition is called "Shared Light," because that's what's necessary for the life of a flower, and I think that's what's necessary for the life of a friendship.
Artist Lynn Goldsmith met musician Patti Smith in the mid-1970s, when Smith was a leading figure in New York City’s punk rock movement and Goldsmith was a photographer who captured iconic images of rock stars, featured on album covers and in magazines like Rolling Stone. (8192x5464, AR: 1.499267935578331)
You seem to have made some very intentional decisions about your choice of color in the show. Can you walk us through some of them?
When you enter the museum, there are large flower images. They're 60 by 40, and I really wanted people to be immersed in the flower, and here, there are blues with very faint purples. Those are colors that, if you're on a spiritual journey or whatever, those seem to be colors that permeate. And as you turn to your right, you enter a room that I call the purple room. It's a room where I have written a poem on one of the photographs that really explains what the entire exhibition is all about. I hope that when people come to visit here, that they read the poem first, and then experience going into what I call the red room.
Yeah, the red room was my personal favorite; it's very dramatic. Your color palette there just really made that room so powerful.
Red and black are very dramatic, and you know there is a drama both in the life of a flower and the life of a friendship, being there through it all, through the bruises, through the uplifting parts, and I hope that people think about their friends in that way, because the flower has a very short period of time in which it's really beautiful and perfect. And then, you know, there's more to the process, and that's true with friendship as well.
The indoor-outdoor exhibit, "Shared Lights," features a pathway lined with large panels of Lynn Goldsmith's close-up images of flowers. (8164x5445, AR: 1.4993572084481175)
Your friendship with Patti Smith is decades long. You actually shot her third album cover, "Easter." How did your deep friendship with Patti Smith impact your art?
For me, she was a muse. She's someone who knows how to create a character, a vibe. She is a performer.
So, let's take it back to the exhibit and talk a little bit about the pathway. As you're walking through the garden, there is a series of images, and it's like you're taking us inside the flowers that you've shot.
I am. That's very astute of you to notice that I'm taking you inside the flowers because I want to be inside the flowers. To me, there's a whole other world in there, and the closer in you go, there's a level of abstraction that allows you, as does, let's say, abstract art, to experience things that are far beyond just what you see in front of you.
"Shared Light" is on view at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens through Sept. 13.
Lynn Goldsmith's images were all shot in the field, on film with a Nikon camera. Most were taken at an extremely close range, with the film “pushed” to create a grainy background and acute detail. (8076x5387, AR: 1.4991646556524967)
These days, she's shifted her lens to flowers. Both of her passions are featured in a new indoor-outdoor exhibit, "Shared Light," at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota.
WUSF's Cathy Carter met up with the artist to talk about her show, which combines floral imagery with photos of Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Patti Smith.
Lynn, in this show at Selby Gardens, you juxtapose photographs of Patti Smith from the 1970s with some more recent photographs of flowers. What was your thinking behind this exhibition?
So, since Patti Smith does an artist residency here, I thought that to connect the photographs that I made 50 years ago with these flower images, I would show how flowers and friendship reflect upon each other. What are the similarities in both? That's why the exhibition is called "Shared Light," because that's what's necessary for the life of a flower, and I think that's what's necessary for the life of a friendship.
Artist Lynn Goldsmith met musician Patti Smith in the mid-1970s, when Smith was a leading figure in New York City’s punk rock movement and Goldsmith was a photographer who captured iconic images of rock stars, featured on album covers and in magazines like Rolling Stone. (8192x5464, AR: 1.499267935578331)
You seem to have made some very intentional decisions about your choice of color in the show. Can you walk us through some of them?
When you enter the museum, there are large flower images. They're 60 by 40, and I really wanted people to be immersed in the flower, and here, there are blues with very faint purples. Those are colors that, if you're on a spiritual journey or whatever, those seem to be colors that permeate. And as you turn to your right, you enter a room that I call the purple room. It's a room where I have written a poem on one of the photographs that really explains what the entire exhibition is all about. I hope that when people come to visit here, that they read the poem first, and then experience going into what I call the red room.
Yeah, the red room was my personal favorite; it's very dramatic. Your color palette there just really made that room so powerful.
Red and black are very dramatic, and you know there is a drama both in the life of a flower and the life of a friendship, being there through it all, through the bruises, through the uplifting parts, and I hope that people think about their friends in that way, because the flower has a very short period of time in which it's really beautiful and perfect. And then, you know, there's more to the process, and that's true with friendship as well.
The indoor-outdoor exhibit, "Shared Lights," features a pathway lined with large panels of Lynn Goldsmith's close-up images of flowers. (8164x5445, AR: 1.4993572084481175)
Your friendship with Patti Smith is decades long. You actually shot her third album cover, "Easter." How did your deep friendship with Patti Smith impact your art?
For me, she was a muse. She's someone who knows how to create a character, a vibe. She is a performer.
So, let's take it back to the exhibit and talk a little bit about the pathway. As you're walking through the garden, there is a series of images, and it's like you're taking us inside the flowers that you've shot.
I am. That's very astute of you to notice that I'm taking you inside the flowers because I want to be inside the flowers. To me, there's a whole other world in there, and the closer in you go, there's a level of abstraction that allows you, as does, let's say, abstract art, to experience things that are far beyond just what you see in front of you.
"Shared Light" is on view at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens through Sept. 13.
Lynn Goldsmith's images were all shot in the field, on film with a Nikon camera. Most were taken at an extremely close range, with the film “pushed” to create a grainy background and acute detail. (8076x5387, AR: 1.4991646556524967)