Robert Mapplethorpe was one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. Coming in on the scene in the nineteen-sixties, Mapplethorpe was considered scandalous and controversial at best. Most of his work had been seen as homoerotic or simply just pornographic. Instead of looking at his work from this perspective however, I will be taking the stance of his work as being technically beautiful as well as arguing that he uses photography to push our popular perceptions of sexuality and fine art.
The first conflict that Robert Mapplethorpe faced was the age of photography itself. Photography has not been around for very long. In fact, it was not fully considered or recognized an art form throughout the 19th century do to it being the most mechanical (not to mention newest) of mediums. Liz Wells acknowledges this argument, stating, “Central to the nineteenth-century debate about the nature of photography as a new technology was the question as to how far it could be considered to be art...But in the early years …show more content…
We can see this through his technical precision, sharp focus, and beautiful lighting that seems to give him a huge tonal range. It is no secret that Robert Mapplethorpe has proven to be an impeccably talented artist when it came to photography. On top of this, the seventies and eighties was a high time for portraiture and street photography, something Mapplethorpe had continuous interest in. “In this period of photography was a means by which minority communities could make themselves visible. According to Deborah Bright, in the United States, the right wing responded to this new-found visibility by attacking the state funding of photography exhibitions (NEA) which dealt with issues related to minorities, and especially to homosexuality.” (Henning
The first conflict that Robert Mapplethorpe faced was the age of photography itself. Photography has not been around for very long. In fact, it was not fully considered or recognized an art form throughout the 19th century do to it being the most mechanical (not to mention newest) of mediums. Liz Wells acknowledges this argument, stating, “Central to the nineteenth-century debate about the nature of photography as a new technology was the question as to how far it could be considered to be art...But in the early years …show more content…
We can see this through his technical precision, sharp focus, and beautiful lighting that seems to give him a huge tonal range. It is no secret that Robert Mapplethorpe has proven to be an impeccably talented artist when it came to photography. On top of this, the seventies and eighties was a high time for portraiture and street photography, something Mapplethorpe had continuous interest in. “In this period of photography was a means by which minority communities could make themselves visible. According to Deborah Bright, in the United States, the right wing responded to this new-found visibility by attacking the state funding of photography exhibitions (NEA) which dealt with issues related to minorities, and especially to homosexuality.” (Henning