Imagine fifty years from now when children are learning about the civil rights movement, but all the photos involving race riots, police brutality, and racist organizations are left out. What people saw on a daily basis would be lost. When a photo is censored what an artist sees is blocked. Photography, just like any other form of art, is an expression of what that individual sees and feels and how he or she try to convey that to his or her audience. This is exactly what some are trying to do to Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographic art. They are claiming his art to be obscene when in actuality his pictures could be compared to great ancient statues and paintings. His works meet none of three legal definitions of obscene and the attack to stop his art is actually a push to stop homosexuality.
Mapplethorpe’s art first grabbed the attention of the masses in 1989 when it appeared at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The art center and its director, Dennis Barrie, were indicted for presenting obscenity after opening a show comprised of Mapplethorpe’s work. This indictment marked the beginning of the controversy over the censorship of art in general, lead partially by Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina (Demaline). Mapplethorpe’s artwork was specifically challenged as he was well known for his homoerotic, male nude, and multiracial portraits (Dalke).
Many argue that Mapplethorpe’s work is not art but merely a form of pornography. Critics argue that his photos of nude men and women are lewd, inappropriate and sickening, especially the ones showing the genitals. However, many see his works as wonderful masterpieces and compare them to ancient sculptures. According to Garwood in “Heroic heretic,” “Mapplethorpe himself once suggested he would have been a sculptor if born 200 years ago. He found photography to be ‘a perfect way to make a sculpture’” (Garwood). He was just copying history and creating his own sculptures with a camera. Also according...