#cock and gun
I’m fascinated with Mapplethorpe’s work. Remember, he did this stuff pre-internet with all the tumblrs, snapchats, instagrams and what not that people use today to shoot a bunch of provocative photos. I read a great article in the Guardian by Jack Fritscher which profiled the artist. Here’s a bit about this particular shot:
He sweated with white guilt trying to make his quest for black beauty keep him from the mortal sin of racism. He dedicated the last decade of his life to documenting famous black men, like the dancers Gregory HinesandBill T Jones, while continuing to shoot unknown black models. He was an existential comedian. He knew that the most frightening thing in the world is a photo of a penis. He knew pictures of black men could add another level of terror to his work. So he upped the anxiety for his white liberal patrons and made the penises big and black. Provoking American paranoia, he took a side-on shot of a black model holding a gun just above his horizontal erection: Cock and Gun (1982). When his patrons blanched, he would double-dare them: “If you don’t like my pictures, perhaps you’re not as avant garde as you think.”
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