I found it quite difficult to take pictures in the style of Mapplethorpe. To start off with I began just taking any portraits, and not thinking about Mapplethorpe's work as I did them. These images were not focused enough on the face but more on the background, which isnt what Mapplethorpe's portraits are like. There was too much empty space in the frame and the face was not shown close up enough. I also found it hard to come up with many different composition ideas, as Mapplethorpe's own are quite unique.
On the other hand, I did end up taking some reasonable images when I went out a second time to shoot.I thought about Mapplethorpe's work and the kind of compositions used in his photography. I made sure the second lot of pictures I took were very focused on the face, with no empty space in the frame. When it came to editing the photos I tried to make some of them look similar to Mapplethope's, and experimented with black and white. This benefitted the result of some of the images as the tones, highlighted and shadows in the face were more emphasised, like in Mapplethorpe's work, but I thought some of them looked better in colour. I am very happy with the straight images from this session and think that some of them are some of my best shots overall.
This was one of the first pictures i had taken. I quite like the picture itself but it does not look Mapplethorpe inspired. There is far too much empty space in the frame and the face is not shown close up enough. Because of this the tones and details in the face are not clear, and my focus lies on the contrast between the two colours of the wall, rather than the facial features.
This picture looks more Mapplethorpe inspired as it is focused on the face rather than the background. Comparing it to the top picture, there is a lot less empty space in the frame and there facial features can be seen a lot clearer. I am happy with the outcome of this image and think that it does look inspired by Mapplethorpe's portrait composition.
Progression
If I was to go out and shoot Mapplethorpe location again I would probably experiment with a larger variety of unique and abstract compositions, as this is what Mapplethorpe did. I would also try out different props as Mapplethorpe did this in some of his portraits, but also to make a more interesting, creative image.
The picture below is one of Mapplethorpe's photographs. He uses props like this in a lot of his work which adds interest to the image, while also filling the frame. After looking at this I feel that I could have improved my Mapplethorpe photos using props like this, as they can completely change the image but also create an interesting composition and add interest to a plain image.
