Robert Mapplethorpe

"For the last few years, when on assignment, Martin Parr has had his picture taken by a local studio photographer, or street photographer, or in a photo booth. The resulting portraits range from pictures taken in elaborate studio sets reminiscent of the heyday of the Victorian studio photographer, through to digitally manipulated images of Parr as Mr. Universe, as well as images horrendously re- touched in the studio's efforts to flatter Parr and make him appear twenty years younger. As with all Parr's projects the book is not only hilarious but also raises broader issues of identity and self, questioning the whole notion of the photographic portrait."

Robert Mapplethorpe began taking photographs in the 1970s with a Polaroid camera given to him by a friend. When he died in 1989 of AIDS, at the age of forty-two, he was considered one of the most important photographers of his generation, having gained a reputation as the avatar of a rigorous formalism stunningly wed to graphic and sometimes controversial subject matter. Most of Robert Mapplethorpe's days began in the early afternoon, often by photographing flowers. Mapplethorpe used them to help focus his vision, centering and warming up for his commercial portrait work. The flowers also helped him to effect the transition to the more daring work, which he executed late at night. Pistils reproduces 120 of these ravishing images of flowers, many of which have never been published. The full range of Mapplethorpe's virtuosity is displayed here - early Polaroids; exacting still lifes in black-and-white and color; and extremely rare, toned gravure prints. These photographs go far beyond decorative allure to place him firmly in the pantheon of the photographic masters.

"Altars is the full-color companion volume to the definitive collection of his black-and-white prints, Mapplethorpe, published in 1992. Beginning with his early collages, Polaroids, and unpublished color prints, Altars follows Mapplethorpe's preoccupation with color and geometry through a wide range of subject matter, from intimate portraits of Patti Smith to sado-masochistic rituals. The book ends with the multiple-colored panels of his late, unique photographic pieces, elaboratly framed."--book jacket.

"Countless photographers have focused their cameras on the cowboy's way of life and rodeo, the sport it spawned, but few have been as talented as Markus or Mauskopf. Both work strictly in black-and-white, producing images that display masterful technique and composition. Mauskopf has taken a traditional documentary approach, covering every facet of rodeo life: the travel, the preparations, the events, and the personalities. Complementing the photographs are extensive quotes from the cowboys and assorted hangers-on. The words and pictures reinforce each other, presenting the sport and the participants as rugged, rough, and romantic. Though predictable in its point of view, Rodeo is enjoyable. Markus's book combines formal portraits with shots of cowboys going about their daily routines; the latter are the more interesting. The book's large format accentuates the wide open spaces in which these men work. They are pictured against the backdrop of large skies in places like Tuscorara, Nevada, and Channing, Texas, doing what cowboys have done since the mid-1800s. In fact, Markus seems to have made a conscious effort to capture something of the quality of photos taken at the turn of the century. Unfortunately, this attempt at authenticity seems slightly contrived. Still, he, like Mauskopf, has brought an unusually impressive style to a hackneyed subject"--Amazon.com from Library Journal.

Provides programs for drawing a variety of pictures on an Apple IIe computer.

More than 700 photographs, including an electronic version of the exhibit The perfect moment, plus a multimedia biography of controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

"Robert Mapplethorpe began taking photographs in 1970 with a Polaroid camera given to him by a friend. Nearly twenty years later, when Mapplethorpe died at the age of forty-two, he was considered one of the most important photographers of his time. His elegant and sometimes shocking nudes, the black-and-white portraits, flower still lifes, and images of sexual sadomasochism had been exhibited widely and were the subject of serious critical attention in Europe and America. A few months after his death, Mapplethorpe became the focus of an acrimonious debate over federal funding of the arts when an exhibition of his work was canceled by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The director of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, was subsequently acquitted of obscenity charges brought against him for presenting the same exhibition." "This is the definitive collection of Mapplethorpe's black-and-white photographs, drawing on the full range of his work, from the early Polaroids to the haunting self-portraits taken shortly before he died. It has been prepared in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, which was established by the artist to provide funds for AIDS research and photographic projects."--Jacket.

An anthology of writings on Robert Mapplethorpe.

A guide to approximately 200 of the most commonly viewed American wildflowers, with 134 color paintings. Flowers are grouped by color.