Robert Mapplethorpe

"I went into photography because it seemed like the perfect vehicle for commenting on the madness of today's existence." 

Robert Mapplethorpe, Self-portrait, 1975.

     It is difficult to write about such a profound and controversial artist like Robert Mapplethorpe.  He took immensely beautiful photographs and ones that disturbed many people.  He was even taken to court posthumously when curator Dennis Barrie and The Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center were put on trial for pandering obscenity for showing images from his Portfolio X series.  For more on the Mapplethorpe censorship controversy: http://www.publiceye.org/theocrat/Mapplethorpe_Chrono.html 

Robert Mapplethorpe, Calla Lily, 1984.

To begin understanding and appreciating Mapplethorpe and his works, I would suggest doing 3 things:

1. Look at his works and decide what you think for yourself: http://www.mapplethorpe.org/ 

2. There is a good documentary on Mapplethorpe and his work (adult viewers) directed by Nigel Finch for the BBC in 1998 (52 min.): http://www.ubu.com/film/mapplethorpe_arena.html 

Profile of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, one of the most controversial of American photographers, which accompanied an exhibition of his work at the National Portrait Gallery in the year before he died. Contains interview with Mapplethorpe himself, along with critic and author Edmund White, and with several of Mapplethorpe's subjects.

3. Read Patti Smith's book Just Kids (Nov. 2010, Ecco): http://www.amazon.com/Just-Kids-Patti-Smith/dp/0060936223 

    -video of her talking about Mapplethorpe around the time the book was published:   

                                       http://youtu.be/33QXPCAdoX8 

May inspiration and creativity be with you!

Women and Tattoos

Book review in the NY Times for “Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo" by Margot Mifflin: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/books/bodies-of-subversion-explores-womens-tattoos.html?smid=pl-share 

Above: Tattoo by Stephanie Tames

Below: Tattoo by Saira Hunjan

Excerpt from the review: 

“Bodies of Subversion” is delicious social history. Tattooing was an upper-class social fad in Europe in the late 19th century. Winston Churchill’s mother had a tattoo of a snake eating its tail (the symbol of eternity) on her wrist. The fad spread to America. In 1897, Ms. Mifflin writes, The New York World estimated that 75 percent of American society women were tattooed, usually in places easily covered by clothing.

By the 1920s, tattooed women were mostly to be seen in freak shows and in circus acts, where they could make more money than tattooed men. They offered, the author avers, “a peep show within a freak show.”

Tattoos lost their appeal for nearly everyone shortly after World War II. One reason was because “tattoos perpetrated in concentration camps had added a ghastly new chapter to tattoo history.”

May inspiration and creativity be with you!