What motivated Robert Mapplethorpe, in both a personal and professional capacity, is made clear in the documentary Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, produced by HBO. Throughout the riveting chronological survey—from his suburban upbringing in Queens, New York, to his death from an AIDs-related illness in 1989—contributors such as lovers, sitters, studio assistants and close friends point out that ambition was everything for the late artist.
The filmmaker Sandy Daley was a neighbour to Mapplethorpe and his muse, Patti Smith, at the Chelsea Hotel in New York in the early 1970s. She made the film Robert Having his Nipple Pierced (1971) and is momentarily lost for words on the subject of Mapplethorpe’s feverish quest to be famous. “Unbelievable” is her response to a question about the late photographer’s drive and vision.
Other testimonies are searingly honest. Mapplethorpe’s younger brother, Edward, struggles with the fact that his sibling was so competitive (Robert asked Edward, also a photographer, to change his name to Edward Maxey should any confusion arise over the Mapplethorpe moniker). And Edward’s account of his brother’s agonising final days stricken with sickness is the most powerful eulogy for a man who would have continued making penetrative, beautiful pictures.
A priest who knew Mapplethorpe as a child assesses the impact of the photographer’s devout Catholic upbringing and how this shaped Mapplethorpe’s view of the world. Medieval imagery of torture and mutilation flickers across the screen, a precursor possibly to his eye-watering acts of gay sadomasochistic sex.
Self-portrait with Whip (1978), which shows the appendage inserted in his anus, still makes uninitiated spectators wince, but startling floral still-lifes from the XYZ portfolio (1978-81) are a lasting reminder of the breadth and depth of Mapplethorpe’s gaze.
The landmark trial of 1990, when the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center was taken to court on obscenity charges for showing works from the X Portfolio, is a framing device in the film, along with a joint exhibition of Mapplethorpe’s works at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) and the J. Paul Getty Museum (Robert Mapplethorpe: the Perfect Medium, until 31 July).
The Getty curator Paul Martineau and his counterpart at Lacma, Britt Salvesen, flick through the photographer’s archives, discussing Mapplethorpe’s innovative use of under-the-counter gay porn in several striking collages.
The end credits show the Lacma director Michael Govan discussing the exhibition’s marketing materials. Mapplethorpe’s haunted face is strewn across the city on street banners, and Govan makes the point that the boy from Queens has entered the pantheon of artists who can be summoned up in a surname. “Mapplethorpe? It’s like Titian,” Govan says, smiling.
• Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, a film by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, now on UK release