Spirit capture Book

Robert Mapplethorpe has had a major impact on the photographic view of human beauty and its statuesque, highly
esthetic nature of it. When you see his photographs, it's rather the elegant, nostalgic and melancholic feel of the photos that make an impression, being less the part of objectification of the bodies or sexual take on it that could get your attention, like in the majority of todays magazines and fashion photography.

His portraits are somehow radiant, with not many facial features to be seen. That's probably because the american photographer wanted these creations to appear more like paintings, even - symmetrical as he liked to say - with not so many lights and shadows, rather than to give them that kinda ordinary, conventional look of people being photographed.

Joan Didion's annotation was a plus for this book, especially when it was said that the more you talk with others about your artistic process(Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mapplethorpe and others agreed on this), your creativity and inspiration, the smaller will the mistery around that particular passion get, the weaker the outcome of it all can be. Therefore, even if you don't realize it by talking about it, your personal satisfaction itself could diminish...