Robert Mapplethorpe

I am driven to make things beautiful. I don't care how I do it.

I don't think my work is shocking. I think it's beautiful.

I see things in black and white. I think in black and white.

I'm looking for perfection in form. I'm looking for perfection in composition. I'm looking for perfection in light.

I don't like to think of my work as controversial. I like to think of it as honest.

I want to show people things they haven't seen before.

I think photography is the perfect medium for me because it's so direct.

I'm not interested in shock value. I'm interested in beauty.

I'm interested in the formal qualities of photography, the light, the composition, the texture.

I'm interested in the human body as a sculptural form.

I'm interested in the dark side of things, but I'm also interested in the light side.

I'm interested in the tension between beauty and ugliness.

I'm interested in the sacred and the profane.

I'm interested in the classical and the contemporary.

I'm interested in the male and the female.

I'm interested in the black and the white.

I'm interested in the light and the shadow.

I'm interested in the surface and the depth.

I'm interested in the real and the artificial.

I'm interested in the natural and the unnatural.