When I have sex with someone I forget who I am. For a minute I even forget I'm human. It's the same thing when I'm behind a camera. I forget I exist.

Boston: Bulfinch Press 1990. Mapplethorpe's first studio was at 24 Bond Street in Manhattan. 2nd ed.

The frank homoeroticism of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks.