A classic, indeed perhaps the best of the Mapplethorpe

books. And for many most certainly the most

typical Mapplethorpe, now available once again

thanks to this re-edition.

The Black Book, first published in 1986, presents 96

formally stringent and highly erotic nudes, all of them

photographs of black men, either as full figures, or

staged as details, as fragments of their bodies.

Stylized as classical statues or provocatively in all

their presence and sensuous radiance. Black-andwhite

photography was Mapplethorpe s preferred

medium. And his obsessive aesthetics was based on

completely mastering it, as this enabled him to visualize

any number of tonal gradations and penetrate

deep into the very pores of the gleaming black skin.

It is a method that reached a climax in these images.

The Black Book, Mapplethorpe s homage to the black

male body, has always been one of the most important

visual contributions to the discussion on beauty,

sensuality, and sexuality in photography.