Robert Mapplethorpe (November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, known for his sometimes controversial large-scale, highly stylized black and white photography. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits and still-life images of flowers. His most controversial work is that of the underground bondage and sadomasochistic BDSM scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s of New York. His highly stylized explorations of gender, race, and sexuality became hallmarks of the period and exerted a powerful influence on his contemporaries. Mapplethorpe died on the morning of March 9, 1989, 42 years old, in a Boston, Massachusetts, hospital from complications arising from AIDS.
This photograph is called Patti Smith. Mapplethorpe took this photograph in 1976 in his loft apartment in New York.
Description
1. When I first saw this photo I was shocked by how fragile and delicate the subject seemed.
2. The subject is the woman in the picture. All the focus is on her as she sits naked on the wooden floor in a crouched position so that her knees are tight against her chest while her hands grip the radiator pipes.
3. The photo is black and white and sort of texture on the floor under her and on the wall behind her.
4. While the main focus remains on the woman subject, it seems as though she is trying to take up the least space possible from that available in the picture by herself smaller.In terms of lines we see very strong lines along the heater that she is holding on to, as well as a strong vertical line behind her aligning with her body.
Analysis
In this black and white portrait photograph Patti Smith sits naked on a wooden floor in a crouched position, her legs folded so that her knees are tight against her chest while her hands grip the radiator pipes in front of her. Smith’s body facing towards a window, but her head is turned towards the camera. She is positioned sitting to the left of the image. She occupies what appears to be an empty room with painted white brick walls, wooden floors and a radiator.. A series of horizontal lines – including the radiator pipes, the flooring and the brick work – are contrasted by the vertical lines of the pipes rising from the radiator and the vertical wooden frame of the window. The singer’s limbs and torso mirror these vertical and horizontal lines, while also introducing some soft diagonals to the composition. Light comes in through the windows creating illuminated surfaces on the left side of her slim body, while casting shadows on the right side of her face.
Interpretation
1. Morrisroe, Robert's biographer, states that in this particular portrait Smith resembles a ‘baby bird emerging from a cracked shell’, and that Mapplethorpe captured the singers ‘precarious state of mind’ (Morrisroe 1995, p.174).
3. Like all of his work, I think it serves a purpose to him as satisfying his needs as an artist and also exploring and cutting through boundaries such as gender and sexuality.
4.Ever since I read Patti Smith's book Just Kids, I have a soft spot for both her and Robert. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of melancholy as I recall the way Patti Smith so beautifully and eloquently described Robert's progression through his art.
5. For one of my gender and women studies classes, we had to watch a documentary called Killing Us Softly in which a woman, Jean Kilbourne, discussed how women are portrayed negatively in the media. This specifically reminded me of an example that Jean Kilbourne used about how women are often made to pose into weak and dominated positions. Patti Smith's pose reminded me of that. However, this picture proves to be something different. First of all, this picture isn't being used to market or advertise. This is a piece of art that was more about exploring aspects of gender.
Evaluation
1. My first impression did change because the woman no longer seemed delicate and fragile after learning about the nature of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography.
2. Yes I think it is a successful photo. It is beautiful in the strangest of ways.
3. Like a lot of Mapplethorpe's work, this picture is very unique especially when one considers the fact that the picture does something that would seem so controversial at the time when this picture was taken.
4. No, I don't have Robert Mapplethorpe's talent.
5.
6. Yes I think the photo was well planned. Everything in the photo seems so structure. There isn't much in the picture given that it is an empty room but Smith's position in the room is very well placed and her form is also matches the feel of the picture very well.
7. Yes, I would buy it and hang it in my room. I think it's beautiful and powerful.
8. It's okay to not stay within society's constraints of what art is.
9. This photo does inspire me to not feel discouraged from taking pictures of subjects that I find worthy and that others might not like.
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