Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe was born into suburban America in Long Island in 1946. He received a B.F.A from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, working in various media. At this time he had not yet worked in photography, but incorporated many photographic images from magazines and books. Mapplethorpe admired the work of Andy Warhol, who later became a close friend, and soon began taking his own photographs with a Polaroid camera.

Mapplethorpe has been quoted in saying, "I never liked photography. Not for the sake of photography. I like the object. I like the photographs when you hold them in your hand."

His first series of Polaroids were self-portraits and of the singer-artist-poet, Patti Smith.&nb...