Robert Mapplethorpe - photographer

Tonight I had to present a little research I made into the life of an "modern day" artist. Without knowing anything about Mapplethorpe I choose him. Both surprising and somewhat disgusting results, but an experience nevertheless. A small summary: Introduction: Robert Mapplethorpe was born in 1946 in New York, died in 1988 at the age of 42. His work was admired at the time because of his use of contrast in both portrait and still-life photography. Today most of the literature regarding Robert Mapplethorpe (especially online publications) concern his early work: gay-erotic photography, both studio and in the New York underground SM-scene. The early work (1970-1980): As mentioned above the work focused primarily on gay-erotic. The Portfolio X series was the most controversial of his work and even until today many organizations like the American Family Association [wiki] dispute wether or not his work deserved the public funding it got back in the seventies.

"I don’t like that particular word ‘shocking.’ I’m looking for the unexpected. I’m looking for things I’ve never seen before…I was in a position to take those pictures. I felt an obligation to do them." - Robert Mapplethorpe (1988)

The final years (1980-1989): In this period Robert shifted his attention to nude-photography [example 1 and 2] without the explicitly shown in works like Portfolio X. And developed a style which was unique (and highly appreciated) back in the eighties. It's because of this he was asked to make portraits of many famous people like Andy Warhol [wiki] and Iggy Pop [wiki]. Today that same style has become quite common, some sort of standard. In my opinion a hidden compliment to his originality. In the same period his attention was also drawn to still-life photography, flowers to be more specific [example 1 and 2]. In these series his style is also highly visible. Though in this category he used color photography for the first time, which in itself was different to the rest of his work. Aftermath: Robert Mapplethorpe died in 1989 of AIDS (surprise surprise). Some of his work was sold in 1988 (after it was made public he was seropositive) at record prices of 500.000 dollar. In 2006 his portrait of Andy Warhol was sold for a whopping 643.200 dollar, the 6th most expensive photograph ever sold. Personal opinion: I think it's a shame that so much attention (especially online) is payed to his early work and the controversy it sparked. The portraits and still-lives he made in the eighties are in my opinion beautiful and set a new standard. The use of contrast strikes me the most.