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
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.
Beauty and the devil are the same thing.
You're never going to get anywhere in life if you don't live up to your obligations.
I would never have done what I'd done if I'd considered my father as somebody I wanted to please
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.
When I’m behind a camera I forget I exist
This AIDS stuff is pretty scary. I hope I don't get it.