Today is Patti Smith’s birthday, Happy Birthday to her! She is one of the most fascinating artists iI know, and has been around on the music scene for more almost fifty years since her debut album Horses in 1975.

Most people will know Patti Smith from the song Because The Night that she co-wrote with Bruce Springsteen in 1978. The song has been her calling card ever since, and is still on her setlist at concerts. But she has done much more than this one song in her career, both as a singer of her own and other artist’s songs, as a songwriter and as a poet.

My first live concert with Patti Smith was at the Norwegian Wood festival in Oslo in 2009. Since then I have seen her several times, the last being at Sentrum Scene in Oslo this year. She is still just as vital as when I saw her the first time in 2009, and I hope for many more concerts in the coming years. I recommend everyone to read up on her life and career, and this Wikipedia article is a good start. Here are a few of the photos I have taken of her over the last 12 years.

All photos are © Per Ole Hagen, and some of them are licensed to Getty Images.The photos are not to be used anywhere without written permission.