‘Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures’

Photo from: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/AR00226 

Obscene:

“1: disgusting to the senses: repulsive; 2a: abhorrent to morality or virtue; specifically: designed to incite to lust or depravity.” – Merriam-Webster.

It’s a word that often gets tossed about when discussing Robert Mapplethorpe’s photography. Coming to prominence in the mid-to-late ’70s, he’s known for a variety of things, but most iconically, perhaps, for his frank, exquisite photography of the S&M scene in New York City.

The documentary “Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures,” screened at the Northwest Film Center in Portland, charts the life of the artist through interviews of former friends and lovers (including Blondie and Patti Smith), old phone interviews of the artist himself, and, most importantly, his own photography. The person who emerges is an ambitious artist, a conflicted man, an exquisite photographer and, some would say, a sexual deviant.

A contemporary of the ’60s pop-art mogul Andy Warhol, Mapplethorpe started his career in a hotel room with Patti Smith in 1967. His specialty was making collages out of gay pornographic magazines, seeking to highlight the tender qualities he saw in these photos. He felt he was stealing by using other people’s photos, however. So, he got himself a Polaroid and began shooting people himself. The pictures depict extremely graphic sex-bondage, fisting, scat, watersports, latex, all with nude men as the models.

The work was considered extremely controversial. Some of you may be uncomfortable reading the words I just wrote.

That was definitely a driving force in Mapplethorpe’s work: In his words, he “wanted to take a loaded subject like sexuality and bring it somewhere it’s never been.” These stark, beautiful portraits of sex acts that mainstream society viewed as off-limits and taboo pushed a lot of buttons. He trained a bright spotlight on a whole subculture that most people would rather not speak about. If people were doing these things, he reasoned, why not talk about them?

“If you think that my work is dirty, that I have a dirty mind, it’s because you think sex is dirty,” he said.

Mapplethorpe died in 1987, while one of his shows (The Perfect Moment) was circulating the country. He died from AIDS. He was 42.

He died extremely, extremely wealthy, and was arguably the first photographer to do so (prior to his work, most photography was viewed as “commercial,” and little more). He legitimized photography as an art form, paving the way for countless photographers, artists, dreamers, deviants, freaks and anyone who thought America was just a little bit too uptight.

Advocate Staff