Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1699966 in Books
• Published on: 1985-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 112 pages

Customer Reviews

A Collector's Item Worth The Search
'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.' So wrote Susan Sontag in her introduction for this 1985 magnum opus of the portraits of Robert Mapplethorpe, beautifully published by Twelvetrees Press. Though the edition was limited there are still copies to be found and for every aficionado of fine photography, this volume is one to own.

In this oversized book each age is filled with a portrait of people either famous or infamous or simply interesting. Susan Sontag is here, as is Andy Warhol, a very young Richard Gere, Donald Sutherland, artist Cindy Sherman, Louise Bourgeois, Francesco Clemente, William Burroughs, Frank Langella among celebrities, as well as multiple self portraits and even some very sensitive portraits of children. There are models from various media and thee are friends of the artist who simply were interesting to Mapplethorpe's vision.

The reproduction of each photograph is as fine as publishers can create and as an art book this one ranks with the best of Twelvetrees admirable library. There are many reasons to add this portfolio to the collection, not the least of which is the fact that it adds another dimension to the world of the gifted and controversial Robert Mapplethorpe. Grady Harp, June 2006