Extended Mapplethorpe Notes (With Illustrations)

From the Internet:

Name: Robert Mapplethorpe

Born: 4th November 1946

Died: 9th March 1989 (aged 43)
Attended the Pratt Institute

He was born in New York

He died from AIDS.

He is known for his black and white portraits

He mainly sold his portraits to the rich
The homoeroticism of this work fuelled a national debate over the public funding of controversial artwork.
He was influenced by artists such as Joseph Cornell and Marcel Duchamp
He moved into Chelsea Hotel with Patti Smith in 1970
In the same year, he acquired a polaroid camera so that he could incorporate his own photographs into collages, saying he felt that way was more "honest".

From the Video:

He controversially documented Manhattan's gay community in the 60's and 70's.

Brought up Catholic

At sixteen, he moved to Brooklyn because of the lack of excitement in the place that he was brought up in

He was known to have had a close relationship with famous artist Andy Warhol

Many portraits of celebrities were taken by him.

His work has been described to be "A statement about how we're living"

He described some of his work as pornography, for he was attempting to arouse the viewer, but it could also be seen as high art.
Mapplethorpe began his photography using polaroids
His first portrait was of Patti Smith
Mapplethorpe's work became 'respectable' due to the fact that he decreased his photographing of what could be labelled as pornography, and focused on classical work.

He took many self portraits:

Here are examples of the celebrities that he took photographs of: