The Self-Portrait: Gender through the Lens of Mapplethorpe
The work of American Photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe, has caused much debate in the context of what can be deemed as art. Photographing through the 1970s and 1980s, a time period during which photography was hardly recognized as a valid art form, Mapplethorpe’s documentation of human sexuality generated both fascination, disgust, and controversy. Capturing his experience of living as gay man in the Punk subculture of New York, Mapplethorpe and his photography challenged the dynamics of gender, sexuality, sex, and beauty.
Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, 1980. Image Courtesy: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Mapplethorpe gazes directly into the camera in one of his Self Portraits from 1980. Centered in the frame, the black background contrasts with the whiteness of his skin, punctuating the angles of his shirtless body. His hair looks as if its been blown back, revealing the entirety of his face and sitting on the top of his head like a halo. Mapplethorpe is wearing makeup in this photo: his lips are glossy with lipstick, his large eyes are lined with smoking eyeliner, and his face is contoured to accentuate its features. His face is soft as he gazes into the camera—he is an emblem of femininity, challenging society’s assumption of who is allowed to present beauty and gentleness.
Often times when femininity is expressed through a male form, there are undertones of shame, humiliation, and comedy. Mapplethorpe took this photo of himself during a time period where non-traditional expressions of gender and sexuality were highly taboo, however, while this is a photograph of a man wearing makeup, it does not depict a man being emasculated, but rather a man embracing femininity. The ambiguity of Mapplethorpe’s gender embraces the ideology that beauty and identity can exist regardless of gender.
Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, 1980. Image Courtesy: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Mapplethorpe further explores the nuances of gender, masculinity, and femininity by with another 1980 Self Portrait. Positioned similarly within the frame (front and center), this photograph is a display of conventional masculinity. Abandoning the gentle, female gaze for a furrowed brow, a cigarette dangles from the left corner of his lips, continuing as an extension of himself. Wearing a leather jacket, it seems as though Mapplethope is criticizing the trope of a ‘tough guy’ and creating a caricature of hypermasculinity.
Through pairing these two photographs, Mapplethorpe demonstrates the vastness and depth of human gender identities. Commonly, being feminine is synonymous with weakness, and even weaponized to hurt men and question their masculinity and manhood. Mapplethorpe’s photography is inherently queer, as it breaks traditional art in its form as well as its content. Through these two photographs, Mapplethorpe has flipped societal expectations of gender expression and makes space for viewers to reckon with the way femininity and masculinity function within social structures. Mapplethorpe’s interpretation of gender is full and all encompassing: people have the capability to be both feminine and masculine in different spaces and even simultaneously. As modern society begins to embrace the ideology that sexuality and gender operate on a spectrum, it is important to recognize artists like Mapplethorpe, who engaged with these topics before they entered the mainstream.
