About Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Michael Mapplethorpe ( MAY-pəl-thorp; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits, and still-life images. His most controversial works documented and examined the gay male BDSM subculture of New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Mapplethorpe is said to have drawn inspiration from George Dureau, an American black and white photographer ten years his senior, who composed shots of fully nude African American and disabled men in his home city of New Orleans. Mapplethorpe's 1989 exhibition, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, sparked a debate in the United States concerning both the use of public funds for "obscene" artwork and the Constitutional limits of free speech in the United States. They created art together, and maintained a close friendship throughout Mapplethorpe's life. In the late 1960s or early 1970s, Mapplethorpe took his first photographs using a Polaroid camera. In 1972, Mapplethorpe met art curator Sam Wagstaff, who became his mentor, lover, patron, and lifetime companion.
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