Mapplethorpe Rescued Patti Smith

Music icon Patti Smith recalls how late gay photographer Robert Mapplethorpe saved her from a predatory older man by pretending to be her boyfriend, in an interview at the New York Public Library.

Smith's recent memoir, Just Kids, focuses on her relationship with the revered photographer who died of AIDS complications in 1989 and whose unflinching images of gay sexuality would stir a debate about government subsidies of art dubbed "obscene."

Watch the video below.