Robert Mapplethorpe: Portraits, Gordon Baldwin.
A collection of black & white portraits taken by Mapplethorpe from the mid 1970s to the 1980s, including some essays about his work and other images of still life & nudes. The majority of his portraits are tightly cropped and square-format images. His sitters include some of the creative & intellectual elite of his time: avant-garde artists, performers, designers, collector, and critics. He admired the work of early portrait photographers, Gaspar-Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar, and Julia Margaret Cameron.
What I enjoyed most about looking through his portraits is that I recognize most of his subjects; known actors of today, muscians, other photographers, fashion designers, etc. I've either watched them on TV or in movie, heard their songs over the radio, admired their photographs, even bought their desinger perfume.
I like tightly cropped portraits. I appreciate the symmetry of the composition. Even though his subjects may be off-centre at times, they occupy most of the space within the square-format.
