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.