Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpewas an American photographer, known for his sensitive yet blunt treatment of controversial subject-matter in the large-scale, highly stylized black and white medium of photography. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits and still-life images of flowers. His most controversial work is that of the underground BDSM scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s of New York. The homoeroticism of this work fuelled a national debate over the public funding...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhotographer
Date of Birth4 November 1946
CountryUnited States of America
People don't have time to wait for somebody to paint their portraits anymore. The money is in photography.
My work is about seeing - seeing things like they haven't been seen before.
I would never have done what I'd done if I'd considered my father as somebody I wanted to please
I recorded that because it happened to me. I wasn't making a point
I don't think any collector knows his true motivation.
I became the toast of London. A lot of people I met came from these really decadent families where the married men were gay and no one thought anything about it.
I can't have just anybody assisting me, I need somebody who I can really communicate with.
I've never lied. I think I've lived a moral life
I wish I could be elegant.
I don't think that there's that much difference between a photograph of a fist up someone's ass and a photograph of carnations in a bowl.
I think that it was a great advantage to go into photography not knowing much about it. Not thinking. I think one of the problems with many photographers today is that they never see for themselves, but just like everybody else...
I'm looking for the unexpected. I'm looking for things I've never seen before.
When I’m behind a camera I forget I exist
This AIDS stuff is pretty scary. I hope I don't get it.