I decided to do my emulation project on Robert Mapplethorpe. Last summer, I read Patti Smith's
Just Kids and was then first introduced to his work from the few photos included in the middle of the book. Mapplethorpe does many portraits of celebrities, as well as focuses on the human body in a very sexual way. Many critics have compared his work to that of Roman and Grecian sculpture, due to his emphasis on the body. Born in 1946, Mapplethorpe lived with his partner Patti Smith in Greenwich Village during the late sixties and early seventies, when he began taking photographs. In his final years, he helped found the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Inc. The foundation preserved Mapplethorpe's work and promoted his visions and beliefs while simultaneously raising money for HIV/AIDS research, from which Mapplethorpe died in 1989. (from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mapplethorpe)
