Customer Reviews

Robert Mapplethorpe: Pictures

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Probably the most reviled book at Amazon because of its sexual explictness of the "out there" gay life led before AIDS, complete with bondage, S&M and even torture. Yet Mapplethorpe was artist enough to make many of the images compelling and haunting plus horrific yet eye/heart stopping. There are even self portraits of Mapplethorpe at the height of his own physical beauty before he too would be ravaged and killed by AIDS. I come down solidly on the side of the "This is art" contenders but caution you that this book is not for the rigid, the squeamish or minors. Mapplethorpe captured an extreme moment in time, when controversial sexual behavior came out to the public and shoved itself in the public's face, clamoring to be viewed and defying us to look away. I, for one, could not look away.

this is the book that all mapplethorpe fans have secretly and not-so-secretly been waiting for...his toughest,grittiest and most lovingly made photographs taken in the space of a few years before fame and, in my opinion, decline. some of these photos have been seen in other anthologies of his work, but arena editions boldly offers 100 views of leather and sex in a volume of unsurpassed quality. the best reproductions of the photographer's work i have seen. this is difficult work to view, but this book is essential for mapplethorpe fans and photography aficionados. why? because this is the body of work that matters when the great photographers line up and are counted. do beware!! the images in this book are unsuitable viewing for all minors, and most adults. buy it!!

This is a fabulous collection of the very subject matter that turned the art world on end. These pictures, however explicit and extreme in subject matter push the more important issue of artistic freedom. Without this freedom we all suffer. Censorship has somehow told us that we can be harmed by the images we look at...more harmful is the forced conformity that ensues when creativity is left for others to decide what is or isn't done in the name of artistic freedom. Having left his flowers and portraits in their own respective niches, his artistic freedom rings clear as a bell with this collection.

The prototype of a man documenting his erotic life with a cold, sophisticated eye. Mr. Mapplethorpe holds nothing back in exposing the guts and glory of his intimate activities, fantasies and eye witness accounts of fetish behavior rarely edited into a coffee table art book. His eye for design makes it possible to view images that would otherwise be just too ugly, depraved and uncomfortable to stare at. A brutally honest accounting of the most hardcore sexual community over-indulging in the new gay liberation of the early seventies.A brilliant,unique artist using photography as a means of very personal expression.

Published after both the death of Robert Mapplethorpe in 1989 and the controversial exhibits at the Corcoran Gallery and the Cincinnati Museum PICTURES contains 100 of the artist's sex photographs. Some of the images had been published in previous books: Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, 1979, for example, where the two men are formally posed in full leather, (Ridley is in chains) in a beautifully furnished room complete with Oriental carpet. Of course Mapplethorpe's self-portrait in leather jacket, the first portrait in the collection, had been published and exhibited previously.

The photographs range from noncontroversial portraits to the extremes of S & M. Some of these images will shock; others (Baby Larry) you may find silly. A couple of them may make you laugh. (The infamous self-portrait of Mapplethorpe, for example, with the riding crop comes to mind.)

Mapplethorpe detested the term "erotic art." He believed that art was either art or it was not. The photographs certainly are beautifully lit and formally composed. Many of the models were his friends and it is obvious that no one was photograhed against his will. (There is only one photograph of a woman among the shots.) In addition to the quotations from Mapplethorpe, Ingrid Sischy has written a thoughtful introduction to the photographs. Since Mapplethorpe did most of these photographs in the 70's and early 80's, we have to wonder how many of these men died of AIDS. Sischy says so well: "They [the photographs] articulate the hope, the craziness, the sense of emerging freedom, the battles of self-esteem, the fight to be proud of one's love. . . Although Mapplethorpe couldn't have anticipated this, as it turns out his photographs have also become an eloquent record of loss."

Certainly no one before or since Mapplethorpe has done this kind of photography. We can only imagine the thousands of images he would have given the world by now, had he lived.

This book defines Robert Mapplethorpe's work in his most extreme and pornographic, but most pure form. Bondage, gay sex, and torture are all revealed in this portrait of the gay community. Although graphically extreme, each of these photos reveal a certain personality of the participants within displaying the reality and the often grotesque nature of inner desires of the human soul.

The book itself is printed with wonderful photographic sharpness and clarity to ensure the reader of every detail. Huge photo prints and commentary by Mapplethorpe himself make this a wonderful addition to any person who relishes erotic photography and artforms. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who is partial to his works rather than to someone who was recently introduced.

This collection of pictures is bound in a good quality cover and printed on a glossy paper of reasonable quality.

The images themselves are, in the main, sex pictures; S&M pictures; and a few portraits. The sex pictures are quite grotesque, concentrating as they do on the pain, blood, urine, bondage and so on. Whether you'll enjoy these depends on your view of the subject. Personally, I didn't find them uplifting or illuminating. The models were sullen, looked unhappy, or downright sad: but then I suppose if your... has been nailed to a plank you're entitled to be a little shaken!

The few portraits included in this volume were entirely unpleasing, and not representative of Mapplethorpe's better work. They offered no real insight ot the subjects, who remained cold and aloof, detached it seems from the process of making art.

This is a collection of many of Mapplethorpe's more 'sensational' and 'shocking' images. Whether you are affronted or not they do deserve inspection, if only to see what the 'conservatives' tried to ban. You might actually feel repulsed and agree that these pictures are not art but pornography.

artistic and powerful, i recommend it

You can always debate whether this book is "art" or not, but the fact is I am worried about what happened to some of the subjects. Helmut? Are you okay? I think Mapplethorpe wanted to shock, and he did, but I found the pictures had too much pain in them to be appreciated. I was deadened to what Mapplethorpe wanted to say, if he wanted to say anything at all. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

I cannot beleive they chopped down living trees, ground their flesh, treated them with bleach and caustic chemicals which eventually are drained into the environment to pollute our mother earth and poison our waters just to produce pressed paper to print this filthy book. I thought I had a strong stomach. After this, I can stand anything. Stand back! I need air!