At forty, Robert Mapplethorpe is probably the most talked about
photographer in America, and one of the most successful, with over
110 solo and group exhibits in the last seven years, his work in
the permanent collections of major museums in this country and
abroad, and two successful books to his credit: "Lady: Lisa Lyon
"(1983) and "Certain People "(1985).
Ntozake Shange is the author of "for colored girls who have
considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf," "Sassafrass, Cypress
& Indigo, "and "Betsey Brown."
"Mapplethorpe wants to photograph everything; that is, everything
that can be made to pose. What he looks for, which could be called
Form, is the quiddity or isness of something. Not the truth about
something, but the strongest version of it..."Certain People "are,
mostly, people found, coaxed, or arranged into a certainty about
themselves. That is what seduces, that is what is disclosed in
these bulletins of great photographer's observations and
encounters." --"Susan Sontag"
"His eye for a face is the eye of a novelist in search of a
character; his eye for a body that of a classical sculptor in
search of an 'ideal.' His sitters-whenter celebrities or pick-ups,
beautiful girls or his black friends-seem mesmerized not by the
lens but by his presence, and they are temporarily transported into
a dreamworld." --"Bruce Chatwin"
"Mapplethorpe's subject matter is portraits, still lifes, nudes and
landscapes. His technical ability is flawless and takes the
black-and-white photo to its limit, using subtle, but dramatic,
lighting to create weighty sculptural forms (even his brunch of
moisture-laden Concord grapes, on view, look as if carved from
deep-black marble." --"The San Francisco Examiner"
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