Maplethorpe was a highly controversial artist in the 70’s and 80’s. His openings drew large groups of supporters and protestors and often required police presence. In Jim, Sausalito, Maplethorpe photographs a, presumably, gay man in a S&M mask, paired with leather gloves, pants, and boots. The S&M, sadism and masochism, community, at this time and currently, is not a highly respected community, and is not something that is commonly discussed or represented, due to its controversial subject. Not only is the S&M community represented in this photo but also the gay community, both being highly controversial at the time.
While it is an S&M scene, it is very tame and the man is simply wearing an outfit. This photograph is part of a series and is most tame of the series as well. The photo itself has beautiful use of light, being underground, most likely, the light is shining down from above, from wherever the ladder leads to. The man is both interacting with the ladder by holding it and bars are creating beautiful patterns on the man. Maplethorpe, being raised Catholic, could have been using the light from above mixed with the “dark”, that is the man and the dark, dirty location he is at, to represent the good and the bad of the world, or the “heaven and hell”.
Tate Modern. “’Jim, Sausalito’, Robert Mapplethorpe, 1977.” Tate, 1 Jan. 1977, www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/robert-jim-sausalito-ar00198.
Good summary and descriptive observations and interesting interpretation of the light and dark.