[soMething arTist] Mapplethorpe梅波索普

在2007年寒假期間，我們幾個心靈受挫的小鬼頭們，開著一台小餐車，輪流撫慰著彼此的生活，我把大學時代的陶藝及染缬作品搬去曲老大工作室拍照，那些深埋在我家閣樓的可憐創作，嗅到了一絲希望，包含那些愉虐照片，整理成一個作品集，準備進軍巴黎。曲老大看到我這些可憐兒，讓她想到了美國已故著名攝影師Mapplethorpe，她翻著他的攝影集，細心的跟我講解每個作品，並讓我回家詳閱。仔細一看，有許多太相似的背景發生在我們身上，只不過可惜的是他在最輝煌的年紀染上重病去逝，而我，才正要開始而已。將要開打的，是一場硬仗，而他，已經功成身退。

Robert Mapplethorpe was born in 1946, the third of six children. He remembered a very secure childhood on Long Island, which he summed up by saying, "I come from suburban America. It was a very safe environment, and it was a good place to come from in that it was a good place to leave." He received a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he produced artwork in a variety of media. He had not taken any of his own photographs yet, but he was making art that incorporated many photographic images appropriated from other sources,including pages from magazines and books. This early interest reflected the importance of the photographic image in the culture and art of our time, including the work of such notable artists as Andy Warhol, whom Mapplethorpe greatly admired.

梅波索普生於1946年，在家裡六個小孩中排行第三。他想起在長島那個無憂慮的童年，他如此形容：「我來自美國的鄉間，一個很安定的環境，同時是一個好的故鄉，也是一個適合離開的好地方。」他在紐約布魯克林的普瑞特藝術學院拿到了美術學士的學位，並在這所學院嘗試了各種媒材的藝術創作，在這個時期他還沒有任何的攝影作品，但他取用許多的照片影像拼貼結合在他的作品上，包括雜誌書籍的頁面。這個早期的興趣反應出當時攝影在文化與藝術上的重要性，包括從事此類別藝術的著名藝術家安迪‧沃荷，就讓梅波索普十分欽佩。



│Self-Portrait, 1975│

Mapplethorpe took his first photographs soon thereafter, using a Polaroid camera. He did not consider himself a photographer, but wished to use his own photographic images in his paintings, rather than pictures from magazines. "I never liked photography," he is quoted as saying, "Not for the sake of photography. I like the object.I like the photographs when you hold them in your hand." His first Polaroids were self-portraits and the first of a series of portraits of his close friend, the singer-artist-poet Patti Smith. These early photographic works were generally shown in groups or elaborately presented in shaped and painted frames that were as significant to the finished piece as the photograph itself. The shift to photography as
Mapplethorpe's sole means of expression happened gradually during the mid-seventies. He acquired a large format press camera and began taking photographs of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
These included artists, composers, socialites, pornographic film stars and members of the S & M underground. Some of these photographs were shocking for their content but exquisite in their technical mastery. Mapplethorpe told ARTnews in late 1988, "I don't like that particular word 'shocking.' I'm looking for the unexpected. I'm looking for things I've never seen before…I was in a position to take those
pictures. I felt an obligation to do them."

在此之後，梅波索普很快的使用拍立得照了他第一張攝影作品，他當時並不覺得自己是一個攝影師，但比起使用雜誌上的照片，他更希望用自己拍的東西作為創作的素材。「我從來就不喜歡攝影，」他說，「不是因為攝影的緣故，而是我喜歡物體，我喜歡手上握著那些照片的感覺。」他的第一張拍立得作品是自拍肖像，而第一個系列作品則是拍攝他親密友人、同時也是一位詩人歌手派蒂．史密斯的肖像。這些早期的攝影作品經常分批展示或被精巧合適地呈現，而被塗過的畫框則像徵著攝影作品的完結。在七○年代中期像梅波索普這樣獨特的攝影表達方式逐漸開始發生，在他取得一台大型相機後，就開始拍攝他廣大生活圈中的週遭朋友和熟識，包含藝術家、作曲家、社會名流、色情片明星及SM地下組織成員等。其中一些照片展現了驚人內容與熟練的技巧掌握。1998年梅波索普在【藝術新聞】談到：「我不喜歡『驚人』這個特別的字，我想要的是不可預期的，我想要尋找的是我以前從來沒看過的東西，我身處在拍那些照片的地方，我覺得我有義務要去拍下這些事。」



│Self-Portrait, 1985│

During the early 1980s, Mapplethorpe's photographs began a shift toward a phase of refinement of subject and an emphasis on classical formal beauty. During this period he concentrated on statuesque male
and female nudes, delicate flower still lifes, and formal portraits of artists and celebrities. He continued to challenge the definition of photography by introducing new techniques and formats to his oeuvre:
color Polaroids, photogravure, platinum prints on paper and linen, Cibachomes and dye transfer color prints, as well as his earlier black-and-white gelatin silver prints.

1980年代早期，梅波索普的攝影開始朝向另一個精緻優雅的時期，並且強調經典美麗的風格，在這個階段他專注在拍攝體態優美勻稱的裸體男性及女性、活生生纖細嬌弱的花朵，以及藝術家、社會名流的正統肖像。他持續地挑戰對攝影的定義、並引進新的攝影技巧與形式在他的畢生作品：彩色拍立得、凹版攝影、在紙和絲上印製的白金版攝影、Cibachomes及dye
transfer color prints(編按：一種轉染方式，價格昂貴、色彩品質佳、穩定度高)，這些都跟他早期拍攝的黑白銀鹽相片一樣精彩。



│Self-Portrait, 1988│

Mapplethorpe produced a consistent body of work that strove for balance and perfection and established him in the top rank of twentieth-century artists. In 1987 he established the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to promote photography, support museums that exhibit photographic art, and to fund medical research and finance projects in the fight against AIDS and HIV-related infection.

梅波索普創造完美、平衡、堅毅的抗爭作品讓他成為20世紀頂尖藝術家的地位。1987年他成立了梅波索普基金會，旨在發揚攝影藝術、資助那些展覽攝影藝術的美術館、提供資金發展醫療研究、為愛滋病及HIV帶原者籌募基金。

梅波索普基金會網站



註1.照片轉載於梅波索普基金會2004線上展覽→http://www.mapplethorpe.org/online/exhibitions/
註2.本文譯自Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
註3.All Mapplethorpe works © copyright Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
註4.延伸閱讀→英文維基百科