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.