Characteristics of Robert Mapplethorpe's Works

The male body image of American photographer Robert Maples appeared in the American art world in the late 1970s. At that time, the values of the whole American society were being divided and reorganized, and the gay movement was in the ascendant. In this context, Maple Leaf came into being, and became a striking "heresy" in the history of western modern art and modern photography with its shocking content. However, his symmetrical and balanced classic picture form is in line with the awakening of post-modern art to traditional forms, so it is favored by western art circles.

Male body photography

Judging from the short history of human photography, male human photography has always been a self-evident taboo. However, Mapplethorpe's body photography shows such a deliberately ignored reality with great courage. But compared with the radical content, the form of expression he adopted is quite classical. Mapplethorpe's body photography works are elegant in style and rigorous in composition. He has strict consideration on the proportion of the picture, the arrangement of human posture, modeling, lighting and so on, so he always takes unbounded perfection as the lead in formal expression. Although his body photography often causes an uproar in the world in behavioral ethics, from the perspective of the picture alone, the subject of male body, which is easy to cause an uproar, has extinguished the human fireworks of the body in the form of completely filtering lust, and the picture completely presents a painstaking deliberation form on the plane image.

The correct body proportion, undulating curve, strong and developed muscles, and the posture that shows male strength are all to emphasize the ideal beauty of men in his mind. Mapplethorpe proved with his impeccable male body beauty that the beauty of the human body not only resides in the female body, but also exists in the male body. Through his unique law-abiding, he showed the beauty of men's bodies and expanded the definition of human beauty. Through the joint efforts of him and other photographers, the male human body finally gained the "citizenship" in contemporary human body performance.