While he dabbled with various muses and art mediums in his career, Robert Mapplethorpe is now most known for his black-and-white photographs, prominently those starring black men. In 1986, he showcased this style of imagery in a solo art exhibition, “Black Males,” which gained significant attention on its own, but was then also followed up by his release of a subsequent book titled The Black Book, further amplifying the discourse now surrounding his work. Both the exhibition and the publication ignited intense controversy and vigorous debate due to their perceived erotic depictions of black men, and were rendered even more provocative by the fact that Mapplethorpe himself identified as a gay white man. The themes of race and sexuality displayed became a point of vigorous discussion and led to many responses, some even artistic themselves, that grappled with the undertones of Mapplethorpe’s imagery. Notable works that emerged from this dialogue include Glenn Ligon’s Notes on the Margins of the Black Book and Essex Hemphill’s anthology Brother to Brother, both of which offer thoughtful responses to Mapplethorpe’s works on black men, exploring themes the of race, sexuality, and the multifaceted nature of personal and artistic identity that can be found within them.

“Robert Mapplethorpe.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., Mar. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mapplethorpe#

The reason that I offered that background concerning those three events is because it helps me to explain what Ken Moody was doing socially and culturally when Robert Mapplethorpe created it. When first seeing my art piece, I conceptualized my potential future events based on the questions that immediately came to my mind about the work: Was Ken Moody the subject showcased? What drove Mapplethorpe to use Moody’s likeness and name for multiple photos? Why the high heel? Why not the high heel on a foot? Why in black-and-white when color had entered the world of photography?

Answering these questions for myself led me to understand what other potential viewers might wonder about when seeing the art. Educating myself on these matters guided me on what to focus on in terms of events, allowing me to gain further knowledge of the piece itself and the world as a whole at the time of its making but also gaining information into how to take action in the current world and going forward. Education does not truly matter if it is not applied towards the future.

Mapplethorpe asserts that his art was not intentionally meant to be sexual in nature, stating that he was inspired by a variety of films specifically for his line on black men. This may instead point out a characteristic in the viewer of seeing the subject matter in a sexual manner. When analyzing any form of media, it is essential to remember that there is not only the relationship between the medium and its artist but also other outside forces as well, such as the world around the piece and the ingrained opinions of oneself as the viewer.