Evaluation of robert mapplethorpe's Works

The theme of homosexuality in photography did not appear until the 197s. Homosexuality is not a brand-new theme. Well-known examples include George Pratt-Collins and Mina Howard. If we go back to earlier times, we will immediately think of the works of Fred Holland Day and Wilhelm von Grodin, who express their homosexuality. Prado Lins, who was active between the two world wars, photographed many surrealist male bodies, giving people mythical associations. Miner Howard also left behind his own works suggesting his homosexual tendencies. Of course, that is not his masterpiece (his masterpiece expresses the local landscape of nature in an abstract way, and most of his works describe it as a metaphor of the spiritual world). Holland Day disguised himself as Christ and made a series of selfies. Von Grodin, who is famous for his admirers of beautiful teenagers, took pains to photograph the limbs of beautiful teenagers gathered in Allner Villa.

Even if they remain famous in the history of photography, these works are scattered and cannot be regarded as a trend with cultural significance. Homosexuality emerged in large numbers as the theme of photography and art, or after the 197s.

Since the 197s, the bizarre existence of gays and lesbians, which were dismissed as personal hobbies, neglected as abnormal heresies, or left at the edge of society or even at the bottom, has begun to show up. Their existence began to be recognized by the society, because these artists were particularly active, and because they formed associations to advocate various rights. The gay communities in Christoph Avenue in new york, Castello in San Francisco and West Hollywood in Los Angeles became famous for a time, and their existence began to attract the attention of the world. But despite this, the situation of these gay streets is exceptional after all, and it is still full of curious eyes at all levels of social life, such as employment and accommodation. Even from the standpoint of accepting discrimination, many homosexuals have chosen "avoiding the eyes of everyone" and "not showing their faces in society" as their amulets in the years since the 197s. It can be considered that this is not so much out of helplessness as it is self-evident. However, they never stopped resisting the unwarranted discrimination and outrageous prejudice they suffered. In addition, as one of the "natural" sexual orientations of human beings, homosexuals must first accept themselves and then seek tolerance from all walks of life. All these are strongly and truthfully expressed in the works.

Let's take human performance as an example to make an investigation. In the past, even if the male body was depicted, it was the ideal beauty of the "male" body, and in most occasions, the authority of "male" was maintained by avoiding positive depiction. In contrast, the works that express the theme of homosexuality from the front create a new form of expression, which is different from the human body expression that simply idealizes "male" and the "male" replica that replaces the subject with "male" and follows the previous female body expression mode.