Robert Mapplethorpe (1946–1989) is known for moving the boundaries of photography trough his experimental techniques and his controversial and often explicit motives.
Beginning in 1973 and until his death in 1989, Mapplethorpe explored the flower with extraordinary dedication, using a range of photographic processes — from Polaroids to dye-transfer color works. In carefully constructed compositions, he captured roses, orchids, snapdragons, daisies, tulips and other species — both common and rare — and forever transformed the way we perceive a classic and familiar subject.
“I’m looking for perfection in form. I do that with portraits. I do it with flowers. It’s not different from one subject to the next. I am trying to capture what could be sculpture.” – Robert Mapplethorpe, Perfection in Form (teNeues, 2009).
