Mapplethorpe: Revisiting and Rereading

In Mercer's second essay he begins to explain the merit behind Mapplethorpe's work. At first Mercer didn't exactly see the significance behind these photographs, but here he begins to explain how Mapplethorpe is ironizing formalist photography, he is using tactful homoeroticism and as a strategy to challenge homophobia. In the photo succession Weston strips the sexuality of his images and focuses purely on form-- how the light falls against a figure, purely formalist images of objects taken out of context. He is looking at the body as an art form, Mapplethorpe on the other hand, inserts the sexuality back into these formalist images. He is ingeniously recontextualizing photography from the photo succession. In his essay, Mercer explains that Mapplethorpe juxtaposes elements of the valuable, classic, nude with "pornographic conventions," which "decenters the hierarchy...of racial and sexual representation." I agree with many of these points in Mercer's second essay and I too believe that Mapplethorpe work holds merit.