Robert MapplethorpeCertain People: A Book of Portraits (1985) Exhibition poster

Robert Mapplethorpe (1946 - 1989) was an American photographer best known for his black-and-white photographs of male nudes, self-portraits, celebrities and still-life images. His most controversial works documented and examined the gay male BDSM subculture of New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Mapplethorpe's 1989 exhibition, Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, sparked a debate in the United States concerning both the use of public funds for "obscene" artwork and the Constitutional limits of free speech in the United States.