Essay question:

How do Robert Mapplethorpe and Karlheinz Weinberger portray ‘Lad Culture’ through the medium of self-portraiture.

Opening quote:

“I am obsessed with beauty. I want everything to be perfect, and of course it isn’t. And that’s a tough place to be because you’re never satisfied”.

Introduction:

As Robert Mapplethorpe himself quoted; “I am obsessed with beauty. I want everything to be perfect, and of course it isn’t. And that’s a tough place to be because you’re never satisfied”. I share the same desire for perfection in my own appearance, both mentally and physically. This need for perfection comes as a sort of validation, a purpose in my eyes hence why in my personal investigation, my area of study will look at masculinity, what it means to be male, how adolescence shapes us as men, conflicts men often face such as body dysmorphoria and a desire to fulfill a certain mould, a mould set by society to look and act a certain way, to be the breadwinner and the hero they dreamt of being as a child. To achieve this, I will be studying the work of Robert Mapplethorpe and analyzing his work on the male gaze. In his work, one of his major exhibitions named ‘The Perfect Medium’ which was featured at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 27 Oct 2017 – 18 Feb 2018, showcased a broad selection of his work, from portraits of his contemporaries to self-portraits, floral still lifes and erotic imagery. Mapplethorpe heavily explored ways identity could be captured and expressed by the camera with a certain style of black and white still portraits, almost always taken in a black or white studio and set up with the models or himself creating or imitating poses in front of the camera. Often, his traditional style of portraiture had a clear subject, and this was often the male physique as he tried highlighting both the beauty and form of the ideal male physique (virtruvian physique as mentioned in this blog post). Through his self-portraits, he strategically crafted a public image for himself. He often took photos of himself as well as models, and by using the styles as mentioned above, he often challenged gender stereotypes, which is a similar theme to my personal study, however rather than challenging it, I want to explore it further. In essence, due to the reasons as highlighted previously, Mapplethorpe seems to be the best artist to study and recreate for my project, as I both admire and want to replicate his style of black and white portrait photography, as well as helping me answer my question of ‘How do Robert Mapplethorpe and portray ‘Lad Culture’ through the medium of self-portraiture’. I will also compare Mapplethorpe’s work with Karlheinz Weinberger who explored the similar topic and also shared a similar style of photography with the black and white staged images.