Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe is known as one of the most important and provocative photographers of the 20th century. Mapplethorpe was born in 1946 in Floral Park, Queens, and he enrolled at Pratt Institute in 1963 to study drawing, painting, and sculpture. In 1970, he began working with Polaroid cameras and had his first solo exhibition of Polaroids in 1973 at the Light Gallery in New York City. Mapplethorpe is known for his documentation of the S & M scene in New York, stylized nude portraits, studio portraits, and still lifes of flowers. In 1986, Mapplethorpe was diagnosed with AIDS but continued to work creatively. The Whitney Museum of American Art held his first major American museum retrospective in 1988, and Mapplethorpe passed away one year later. The photographs included in Mapplethorpe's Some Women explore ideals and realities of female beauty.
Robert Mapplethorpe is featured in Edition: Guest Editor, Wes Gordon
