Pennie Smith

Pennie Smith is one of the UK's leading rock photographers.  She had been photographing for NME when 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 modest about her contribution:  " I don't think I created their image - I just added atmosphere and perhaps the setting to the image they already had "