Completely cloaked by a sea of black, Robert Mapplethorpe’s pale face appears to be floating on a black background. His intensity stares unflinching at the viewer. No longer fresh-faced as in his earlier self portraits, Robert sits tightly clenching a death cane. A blackened skull sits atop the cane, its hollowed eyes and frozen features eerily similar to those of Mapplethorpe the photographer. He documented his own physical battle with AIDS in the same dramatic style used with his studio subjects. Within a year of taking this photograph, Mapplethorpe fell victim to AIDS, the affliction that ravaged many of his friends. Black and white, good and evil, life and death all come together in this one image, as objects on symmetrical altars.

Self Portrait | Homoerotic | Form | Classical | Comments? You can view comments or reviews of the Robert Mapplethorpe Retrospective when visiting the Gallery of Photography, Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland from November 1996 through January 1997. Photograph copyright © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Site assistance provided by Temple Bar Properties.