Image Bank - Mapplethorpe Portraits

Here are some images by Robert Mapplethorpe that I found on the internet. Mapplethorpe was a rather controversial photographer at the time and one of the less controversial image types he did was portraits which he did for a lot of people.

Here we see a picture of a woman which at first glance looks average but Mapplethorpe's use of focus and contrast makes the shot almost ethereal.

In this image I think Mapplethorpe is making a statement that woman should be seen not heard and the tape makes degrades the woman to no more than an object.

Here we see a self portrait of Mapplethorpe. I think this was carefully contrived to make him look cool and is reminiscent a James Dean image from the early 50's

Mapplethorpe having fun, and playing with low light to emphasise the devil theme.  

A simple but classic study of light and dark but I think the background of the black man. If I was to do this I would make the background of the Black man totally white.

Another self portrait of Mapplethorpe typical of 50's movie imagery.