Robert Mapplethorpe: Representing a Fetishised Aesthetic

Abstract

Homoerotic photography has operated to liberate queerness through the camera’s ability to pronounce ideas and experiences that were prohibited within heteronormative discourse. Photography reproduces experiences which enable the spectator to share in the narratives embedded in them. The photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe relay queer experience by means of illustrating sexual fantasy to the public; however, I propose a possible counter-reading of his images, as I draw on the notion of fetishism, and how homoerotic photography perpetuates a dangerous fascination towards the Other. I problematise the fetishistic nature of gazing upon the Other within the highly celebrated artworks of Mapplethorpe. In approaching the intersections evident in Mapplethorpe’s photographs, I primarily consider the ideas surrounding visuality and race, and sexuality’s manifestation through photography. A malleable way of looking at gender identity is depicted in Mapplethorpe’s photographs, especially through the lens of technological expression: photography as storytelling. The present work contributes to existing literature by means of complicating our consumption of art, particularly Mapplethorpe’s work whose images are regarded as icons within queer culture. Understanding this will allow us to consider how we see representation from repression as we reflect on our historic practices of consumption. The current work critically looks at "change" through the lens of photography, and how the camera has operated to represent queer communities through sexual artistic expression.