Robert Mapplethorpe Notes

Below are some facts that I researched of Robert Mapplethorpe along with some notes that I took down when watching the video on him and his photography.

Facts/Information

• Born in 1964 in New York and sadly died in 1989 of aids.
• He went to the prat institute of art, where he was introduced to photography. He met Patti Smith who became a lifelong friend. She's a singer/songwriter who lived with Robert Mapplethorpe for a while, just as friends, in the early 70's.

• Robert Mapplethorpe is known for his portraits that are virtually all in black and white.
• His work has been used on album cover.
• He does private portraiture for people.
• He'd target a rich person with no charge unless he wanted the picture. 
• He done some commercial work.
• Controversially, he did document manhattans gay community, which is what Mapplethorpe was a part of. This work got him in trouble at times and some of his exhibitions had been closed down and he'd go to court because of the question "is it pornography or art?"
• He denies that he set out to shock, and says that it was more of a selfish matter as it's just somethin that he wanted to do, 
• Mapplethorpe was brought up as a Catholic but he never came out to his father about his sexuality. He came out to his mother.
• Went to Sunday Church.
• Arranges things in Catholic style e.g. the room he'd shoot in.
• Religion has an influence on his life, even though he isn't really religious.

• Mapplethorpe photographed a very interesting set of flowers. It was the second biggest seller in the art galleries and he only did it to make money. His stylist would choose the flowers and he would just photograph them in his own style.

• His portrait style is unbelievably good, very simple, nothing complicated, with soft lighting and fantastic composition.
• He worked in a pre-digital age.

Notes that I took down when watching the video on him

• Mapplethorpe is Americas most controversial photographer. 
• His work has transformed the face of fashion photography.
• He figures that he can make a large sum of money by packaging his slick photographs as art. He knows where the money is and he knows how to achieve it.
• His work these days is most likely to be found in museums; London museum. He's occupied the number one spot.
• It's a mistake to see him as chronicling a generation.
• The content of his photographs are that provocative that he's bridged the gap between shock and acceptability.
• He portrays his models as powerful and arrogant; he thinks that he really captures people.
• Mapplethorpe sets the tone; cool and a bit on the surface.
• He spent his childhood in Floral Park and comes from Suburban America which is a safe environment and a good place to originate from, and leave.
• At 16 years of age, Mapplethorpe started art school training and moved to Brooklyn. 
• He's always exploratory, never bitter.
• He helped Patti build confidence in her work; Mapplethorpe was an extremely encouraging friend.
• He first started taking pictures with polaroid cameras.
• The first portrait that he took was of Patti Smith and he didn't make anyone do anything that they wasn't comfortable with. 
• Gallery charges up to $15000. 
• Usually uses friends as models. 
• Mapplethorpe was always photographing the life that he lived; gay sexual nature.

Work Diary - Mapplethorpe Location

Evaluation

Capturing pictures that replicated Robert Mapplethorpe's work was a challenge at it's finest. I went on location around campus and chose a variety of different backgrounds to locate my models in front of in order for me to produce photographs that were inspired by this famous American photographer. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't too difficult either. I successfully took a variety of different pictures that looked similar to Robert Mapplethorpe's work by making the subjects pose and most importantly, look unhappy. I asked them to turn their bodies and face their heads in different directions to enable me to create pictures inspired by Mapplethorpe's that looked identical in pose. The one thing that I probably didn't feel comfortable with was the fact that I wasn't able to dress and style my models beforehand to allow me to capture the best possible remake of his work. I would have given my model's wacky hairstyles and possibly added props to the picture e.g. holding a stick or a pen or sitting on a large chair perhaps.

I really feel like I've successfully captured Mapplethorpe through this picture. Often in Mapplethorpe's photography he brightens the face of his model to allow it to stand out against the rest of the dark background. Here, the only bright sector would be Geroge's face and neck making him look slightly ghostly, mysterious and suspicious at the same time, which is what I like. The black and white effect makes this photograph look serious along with George's blunt facial expression. It's common in Mapplethorpe's photography that his models look  

I feel as though this picture could have been improved in so many different ways. First of all Grace has a smile on her face which isn't the expression that most of Mapplethorpe's models have. Furthermore, the background I positioned her in front of was pink which perhaps is too bright of a colour when using Mapplethorpe as inspriation. It probably would have been appropriate if I'd used a grey background instead. These minor adjustments could have made this photography successful.

Progression

If I was to reshoot this topic and improve the quality of my photographs I would probably plan my shoot the night before so that I was prepared in what style of pictures to take. Although I feel as though him being my inspiration was evident in my straight images, I still know that I could have done a lot better. Next time I'd do more research into Mapplethorpe's portraits and try my best at attempting a copy of his work. I am aware that my photographs aren't supposed to be identical, however I'd want to make my version as similar to his as possible because I'd then feel as though the shoot was more of a success.

Work Diary - Mapplethorpe Studio

Evaluation

Using the photography studio to take photographs that Robert Mapplethorpe had inspired was definitely a positive aspect. During this shoot, I was able to use a block colour background in the background of the photograph's subject. I could also use the lights to create darker and lighter areas of the subject's face. This was a main element of the shoot in order to capture picture's that looked dark in the background and light in the foreground. I used a black backdrop in all of my straight images because I felt that this was a more appropriate colour to use considering Mapplethorpe's images include no colour. Although he was my inspiration for this shoot, I didn't find it very interesting. All I seemed to be doing was guiding those who were in my pictures to perform different actions or poses and for me this wasn't as interesting as previous shoots. I ran out of ideas and had to improvise my pictures hoping that they'd have some form of inspiration by Mapplethorpe in there somewhere. This was definitely a negative, however I was a lot more impressed by the studio shoot than the location shoot of Robert Mapplethorpe.

For me this was the most successful picture from the shoot. I put a black and white effect on the orginal image and then altered the curves and levels. this meant I could darken the background and make George's face a lot brighter as I noticed in Mapplethorpe's portraits that the faces of his models are often bright and white. George's moody expression also adds to the seriousness this picture exhales. Most of Mapplethorpe's models have no expression and rarlely look happy which is what inspired me.

This is the original version of the picture that I took of Alex. I left this one in colour without putting a black and white effect on it and therefore think that this was the picture with the weakest quality. In my opinion it looks more like I've been inspired by Mapplethorpe with the black and white effect which can be found in my straight images.

Progression

To escalate my photographs into more professional pieces, I'd want to next time plan the shoot beforehand so that I wasn't on the spot with ideas in the studio. I may also experiment with the white background instead of just the black one to make my photographs less harsh and dark. Mapplethorpe didn't only use a black backdrop, he also used a white one which is why I'd like to attempt this in future. It could make my images a lot more exposed, as the dark features and costume on the model would stand out instead of blending in. Examples of this have been demonstrated below.

Work Diary - Location Contrast 2

Evaluation

I must admit, doing this shoot again was quite difficult. I'm not sure if I preferred the first shoot or the second, because I felt as though my options were limited with taking pictures on the second shoot as I found myself wanting to capture similar images to my first shoot. For this lesson we went around the campus again to try and improve our straight images from the previous location contrast shoot. I ended up with some successful photographs in the end, and felt that these were made to look a lot more appealing with photoshops wonderful tools. The contrast were evident in every picture and I took more where the page was split, as in the contrast would be sharing half of the page each as though there was a line going down the middle separating the two contrasts. I ended up with some successful pictures even if I did struggle with not taking the same style of photo as last time.

This was the most successful picture that I capture during this shoot because I think that the contrast is clearly evident. I deliberately positioned the leaves in a way that there was a bundle on one side with hardly any on the other side so that one portion of the frame contained leaves whilst the other contained only pavement. I liked editing this with the curves aswell to make the picture more dark an defined.

This was the worst photo that I took when capturing contrast on location for the second time. This picture is pretty pointless really, the bin doesn't look very straight in the picture and overall it's just an unattractive photograph. The colours of the bin and the brick wall contrast, however it would have probably been a lot more successful if the bin was completely blue instead of having a gap where the bin liner is on show.

Progression

Doing a contrast shoot on location is always a lot more enjoyable than doing it in the studio. There's so many grounds to cover and so many different things outside that contrast with eachother for example, car colour. If I was to redo this shoot a third time I would perhaps capture pictures of cars and go to the car park in order to find different images. I ended up staying around the same area on the second shoot which was a downfall for the quality of my photographs. I'll make sure to cover a lot more grounds next time and take as many pictures as possible as you can never have too many. I have included a few images that have been captured on location that inspire me.

Work Diary - Studio Contrast 2

Evaluation

I really enjoyed being able to do this shoot a second time. When I used the studio the first time round I used colourful backgrounds. For this shoot I made sure that I used darker backgrounds to create more contrast. I created contrast in the studio by using just one person and creating a shadow on his face so that the lighted part of his face would cotrast with the darker side of his face; I found this to be very intriguing and enjoyable to create as it took a few attempts to capture the right kind of picture. I didn't take many photo's for this topic which was a shame because the choices for my straight images was limited however I did find the overall outcome of the studio contrast shoot 2 to be a success.

Likewise with my first studio contrast shoot, this is a similar one to the previous successful photograph that I analysed. It was successful because it clearly portrays a contrast; happy and sad. I also prefer here the black background because it allows their faces to stand out which makes the contrast a lot more evident. The studio version of this image looks a lot more professional than the one I captured on campus which is why it's one of my favourite.

Although it can be said that the contrast here would be Josh with one eye open and one eye closed, I don't think that it's a very good piece of photography. Nothing else on Josh's right said has changed except for his shut eye; the contrast would have been much more evident if perhaps one half of his lips and nose had changed too and not just his eye. He also hasn't been positioned directly in the centre of this picture so it looks slightly out of proportion.

Progression

By improving my pictures and reshooting them I think it is vital that I put some black and white effects on them next time. If I was able to dress the subjects of my photographs I would love to dress one in black and one in white because this would create an extremely evident piece of contrast. Overall I believe that my contrast shoots have been a success and if their were any changes I'd make to them they'd be minor. I think for just being able to do contrast in the studio and on campus I have done pretty well. Below are two pictures including a black and white effect to demonstrate just how well this effect portrays contrast. The second picture is also one that covers my idea for wanting to dress two people up in different coloured clothing.

Straight Images - Studio Contrast 2

Straight Images - Location Contrast 2

Straight Images - Mapplethorpe Studio

Straight Images - Mapplethorpe Location

Image Bank - Robert Mapplethorpe

Robert Mapplethorpe is a simplistic American photographer who focuses plenty of his images around the gay community. He took an assortment of photographs portraying people's nudity which some viewers found to be uncomfortable, whilst others found it magnificent. His vast, provocative, and powerful body of work has established him as one of the most important artists of the twentieth century. Robert Mapplethorpe is known for his sometimes controversial large-scale, highly stylised black and white photography. 

This is one of Robert's more lightly lit pieces of photograph. A lot of his pictures are in front of a black backdrop, but this one stands out from the others because it's less bold and features himself too. Robert Mapplethorpe does his own self portraits, because he was catholic and gay and never came out to his father so would use his own photographs to explore his identity. 

Here I like the contrast that is clearly evident between the different races of human faces.  The faces being both male means that Robert Mapplethorpe has captured the gay community effectively as he has also placed them both in a close proximity.   

This photograph is intriguing because the black backdrop blends in with the woman's dark piece of clothing so it looks as though her ghostly complexion is floating in the middle of the screen. Her face and neck has been softened to create a more feminine touch to the image.

Image Bank - Multiple Imagery

Multiple Imagery's are pieces that tell a story through more than just one picture. The photographer takes a range of different pictures of one thing and then merges them together separated by a thin white grid to mask together one overall picture. It's extremely creative and so many different things can be done with this topic. Below are six pictures demonstrating multiple imagery. If one photograph can speak a thousand words, then nine or twelve etc. can speak thousands more. In my opinion, multiple imagery is a topic that can makes a boring photograph interesting. You don't have to focus on just one subject, instead you can take pictures of small sections to then physically create the image. Multiple imagery could also perhaps show more than one facet of an object, place or person.

This multiple imagery piece has been created by the photographer taking a picture with the frame filled by two different block colours. They've then slid across the wall and taken another one similar with a different colour. From this picture I assume that the original image would have been one long landscape brick wall painted all kinds of different colours. The grid  breaks up the length of the wall, making it more like a multicoloured building from somewhere like Tobermory or buildings by the beach.

This piece portrays a journey of someone through only nine pictures. At first they start off standing up straight on a patch of grass. Five pictures into this piece and they're half way under the ground. By the 9th picture the model is nowhere to be seen, only a dark black oval shaped pile of mud in the centre of that specific picture. This multiple imagery demonstrates the process of someone being burried or sinking which could be interpreted as a deep meaning.

This is just a simple picture of an old fashioned telephone demonstrated through 25 individual pictures. This doens't include the white grid so it makes the picture look more like a constructed piece rather than separate sections of the subject.

Here the model has posed in three different styles: facing left, straight on and right. As a finished piece it has been built up as one single picture of what could look like three different models, when in fact it's just one person. That's the ability of a multiple image.

This would have to be my favourite multiple imagery piece; it's so incredibly detailed and perfected with precise pictures. The photographer has intentionally zoomed in on certain areas of the woman's limbs and placed them all around her original body to make it look as though she's performing all of these crazy actions when really she only has two feet and two hands, not ten. An interpretation that could be revealed from this piece would be the photographer attempting to apply the sea life to human beings, as the model looks like a crazy octupus which would be impossible for her to look like in real life naturally. I think this would make a fantastic picture for a dance agency advertising themselves.

This multiple imagery is humorous as well as fascinating. It demonstrates all kinds of different mouth poses that many people act. It includes people of difference races to portray equality and perhaps women aswell as men also; it's difficult to tell a man from a woman by a mouth apart from facial hair. Overall this image is clever and amusing and a different example of multiple imagery, as instead of one mouth having an assortment of pictures taken from it, a variety of different mouths have been used to create this composition.

Work Diary - Multiple Imagery

Evaluation

During Thursday's photography session we were asked to go out and shoot pictures to compose a 'multiple imagery' piece. I either focused on one object and photographed different sections or photographed something on a variety of different backgrounds such as my feet and a leaf. I enjoyed taking pictures from the distance along with close ups to merge them into one piece when finalising my multiple imagery's. It was interesting creating the multiple imagery's because most of the object ones don't flow from one image to the next through the white gap, but this wasn't necessary as overall you are able to tell what it is that I've taken a photograph of. I especially felt like a photographer when I decided to sit on the floor outside and put my feet up onto a wall to accomplish pictures on block colour backgrounds such as the orange and pink ones in the multiple imagery of my feet. It's deceiving because from the multiple imagery piece below you're unable to tell that in some of them I'm not actually standing up.

My favourite multiple imagery piece from the session would have to be the one above. It was difficult choosing the most successful one out of 10, but this kept calling out to me each time I saw it. In this picture I've stood on top of a variety of different things such as grass, leaves, stones and metal rails but also sat down on the floor and put my feet up onto a wall that I felt would look effective beneath my feet. Exacmples of these would be the orange and pink background which I think are two of the best because my boots don't blend in with the background; they stand out. I also like how the position of my feet are almost identical in every picture. It allows the viewer to focus on that rather than there being too much going on in each individual photo.

In my opinion this was by far the worst and less creative multiple imagery piece that I created. Most importantly this picture is completely dull and moody. The puddle already exhales a negative vibe as this represents rain and chilly, crispy winter days that nobody enjoys experiencing. There's an extreme lack of colour introduced in this picture which makes it less attractive and eye catching. If I was scrolling through multiple imagery pictures I'd rush straight past this one which is why I believe it was an unsuccessful attempt.

Progression

To excel my quality of photographing multiple imagery I would like to capture pictures of somebody's face or certain features of their face pulling a range of expressions. For example, I would take around nine photographs of an eye performing all different actions such as a wink, a surprised eye or a squinty eye etc. I think this would create a really intriguing piece. I would ensure that my photographs had bursts of colour to catch the viewer's eye as this for me is the main formal element that absorbs someone's attention. I'm also interested in lips as a multiple imagery because you can face paint lips with different designs and styles and add bright bold lipstick to enhance the lips shape. Below I have inserted a few multiple imagery's that inspire me.