FROM an early age Robert Mapplethorpe stood out from the crowd.
He took that into his adult life and as a photographer pushed the boundaries of what was accepted as normal within the industry.
Who is Robert Mapplethorpe?
Robert Mapplethorpe was born in Queens, New York on November 4, 1946.
As one of six children, he tried to stand out even from an early age, to gain the attention of his parents.
A skinny and socially awkward child, he studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
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This was where his interest in photography stemmed from as he wanted to use the images he captured in his paintings.
The works of Andy Warhol inspired his own creativity, something he was to later carry across into his photography.
His early Polaroid pictures were self-portraits or images captured of friends.
It wasn't until the mid-1970s that photography became the central focus of his works.
Why is Robert Mapplethorpe important?
As a young artist, Mapplethorpe craved fame and networked with various people who would eventually pave the way to his achieving this.
One such relationship was with artist/poet Patti Smith, who went on to be a rock musician.
She can be seen as much in his photography as he can be heard in her music.
His photos of artists, celebrities, porn stars and "off limits" genres led to his work standing out from the rest.
In the late 1970s / early 1980s Mapplethorpe began to take an interest in the gay s&m scene in his works.
His unique style of black-and-white photography and self-portraits offer inspiration and influence to this day.
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How did Robert Mapplethorpe die?
Robert Mapplethorpe died March 9, 1989, at the age of 42.
The cause of his death was a result of complications of the AIDS/HIV virus.
Rumours had circulated in the art scene of New York at the time that he had been suffering from the virus for some time.
How do you pronounce Robert Mapplethorpe?
His name is pronounced ma-pel-thorpe due to the double P.
Often people would mispronounce it as may-pel-thorpe, something which began to annoy the artist over the years.
What type of camera did Robert Mapplethorpe use?
When first starting out as a budding artist and student most of his images were captured on a Polaroid camera.
The unassuming Mapplethorpe used what was regarded as quite a basic camera but the artist felt it gave a gritty realism to his works and made his photography feel honest and raw.
His Polaroid SX-70 camera, with images, developed purely in black and white offered context on the era at the time but made him stand apart from others.
Mapplethorpe is still talked about to this day and his portfolio of photography is studied in art colleges worldwide.
