It Is Not Sex By Itself That

Take A Look At The Books Other People Have In Their Homes.

In My Photographs It Is Apparent That There Was No Posing At The Moment I Released The Shutter.

Mapplethorpe Presented The Body As A Sexual Object, Separating It From The Humanity Of The Person. He Added Nothing To Photography As A Medium. I Hold His Work In Low Regard.

Here Was One Place Where I Could Find Out Who I Was And What I Was Going To Become. And That Was The Public Library.

Can The Imagination, Any More Than The Boy, Be Held Prisoner ?" - From The Foreword To The 1976 Edition Of "the Painted Bird