Hand-picked portraits of curiosity, alarm, and self-possession take form in photographs of infants in Edward Mapplethorpe’s new book, “One: Sons & Daughters”—including that of the photographer’s own son. With over 150 images and spanning 20 years, it’s the longest-running project in his portfolio.
Mapplethorpe admits that these portraits were a commercial means to support his artistic practice. But after running through the contact sheets of his first commissioned shoot in 1996, Mapplethorpe says he saw something deeper in the work.
“I knew it was a difficult subject to photograph, but it just morphed into something,” Mapplethorpe told artnet News in a phone interview. “It’s become such a great body of work, and to deny that of my artistic practice is short-changing it.”
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