From: Monica Mitchell (kore54@hotmail.com)
Date: 11/03/00-03:04:02 PM Z
>Visually? Nothing too new here, either, except *some* of his work included
>a documenary-style depiction of the gay subculture, albiet "shocking"
>enough
>to the the bible-belt extremeists of the USA to threaten the very existence
>of publically-sponsered art. Certainly he has not "greatly affected the
>medium".
I have problems with this statement.
Anyone who does something no one
has done before is in fact,
"affecting the medium".
Mapplethorpe did that.
He produced some great imagery.
Both beautiful *and* ugly.
Some of it, like the body of work
you reference above, was mind blowing.
How many people knew that
subculture existed before
Mapplethorpe's images came out?
How many people realized their
sexual fantasies, or pequlirities,
were in fact, quite normal?
How many people asked questions,
started thinking, started relotutions,
all focuesed around on body of work?
Isn't that what we want out of art?
Isn't that the whole point?
The think, to express, to feel...
Isn't that "influential"??
You can rip apart his technical merits.
Honestly, I don't know how
he got from idea to print.
Frankly, I don't care.
His work is visually stimulating,
and his ideas are thought provoking.
And he's part of the reason
I started to *really* look at
photography as an expressive
art form rather then a series
of pretty pictures to be hung
over the mantle piece or
stuck in a photo album.
For the most part,
his work said something.
And that says a lot.
>Mapplethorpe has been included for sensational reasons alone, in order to
>reduce the "yawn factor". What kind of a priority is this? His inclusion
>calls into question the ethics of the instructor, and with it her
>competency. Would other disciplines use sensationalism for a selection
>criterion? Economics? History? So why must photography be "dumbed down"?
I think if you look at
Mapplethorpe's work that
doesn't include leather and whips,
you might think differently.
The way he photographed
black skin on white is a
photo study in and of itself.
-Monica
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