When Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-89) died of AIDS, he had just achieved the fame and celebrity he had long yearned for. After his death he became a figure of enormous controversy.
In the year of his death, a solo exhibition tour of Mapplethorpe's photographs was condemned by the virulently anti-gay Senator Jesse Helms, who used Mapplethorpe's photos in an attempt to cut federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. The controversy exploded when the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati was charged with obscenity and forced to endure a jury trial for displaying Mapplethorpe's work. The museum was acquitted.
HBO will premiere Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures on Monday, April 4. It's a new feature-length documentary from openly gay filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, neither of whom has every shied away from controversy. The film illustrates what people found so shocking and fascinating in Mapplethorpe's work. Openly gay, Robert Mapplethorpe developed an intense fascination with BDSM, as well as with the bodies of African American men. A sizable portion of his work was devoted to these subjects, and the photos were graphic. But Mapplethorpe was no run-of-the-mill pornographer. He was an artist who took his work very seriously. His nudes, his penis photographs, and his depictions of hardcore S&M were always carefully staged and lit. Mapplethorpe may have wanted to shock and titillate, but he also wanted to move people emotionally with his work. He wanted people to think about and talk about what he was doing. People indeed took notice.
Fenton and Barbato's film looks back on Mapplethorpe's life and career, beginning with his conservative Catholic upbringing in Floral Park, New York. Mapplethorpe's sister and brother participated in the making of the film.
Look at the Pictures follows Mapplethorpe's early years in New York City, where he entered into a heterosexual relationship with poet/musician Patti Smith, who remained a close friend after Mapplethorpe came out. By 1977, Mapplethorpe was the lover of Jack Fritscher, a writer and the editor of Drummer magazine, which served the BDSM community.
Through newly shot interviews with friends, lovers, family members, colleagues and models, Fenton and Barbato let viewers know who Robert Mapplethorpe was. He celebrated his sexuality. He hungered for wealth and fame, and was not above using people. But mostly, he took pictures.
In addition to his graphic sexual imagery, Mapplethorpe became an acclaimed portrait photographer. Models Brook Shields and Debbie Harry recall their memories of him.
The film opens with news footage of Senator Helms condemning Mapplethorpe from the floor of the Senate. "Robert Mapplethorpe, a known homosexual who died of AIDS, and who spent the last year of his life promoting homosexuality �" look at the pictures!" Helms said. His hatred is all-too-apparent. This is a particularly powerful opening for the film in the light of a sweeping anti-LGBT bill that was passed into law last week in North Carolina, Helms' home state.
The next 100 minutes of the film are no less powerful. Mapplethorpe lived an extraordinary life. Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures preserves that legacy.