Photography Teresa Engle, courtesy of Daniel Cooney Fine Art
When you think of Robert Mapplethorpe, powerful images come to mind: the purity of his nudes and flowers, the precise lighting and printing of his work and, perhaps most recognisably, the transgression of boundaries that he boldly took. You may remember Mapplethorpe as a beautiful young man whose brief existence on Earth forever changed the way we think about the spaces where art, photography, and pornography intersect and unfold.
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While many know his work, few knew the man himself, the person behind the bullwhip. Teresa Engle is one of those who had the chance to spend private time with Mapplethorpe as his career reached stratospheric heights in the art world. In July 1981, Engle was fresh out of college, just getting her bearings in the world, completing a year-long darkroom internship with Lucien Clergue in Arles, France. Although she had studied photography, was coming to realise her true calling was that of a printer.
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Mapplethorpe has come to town to show his work at the annual Rencontres d’Arles photography festival. Engle first met him when he dropped by the Clergue studio, but the forces of fate had them cross paths once more, while Mapplethorpe was lunching at Place du Forum. This chance encounter led to an unexpected connection of a most profound kind, one that resulted in the opportunity for Engle to photograph Mapplethorpe and Sam Wagstaff, his benefactor, before they left Arles.
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Engle’s portraits from this encounter will be on view in An Afternoon in Arles: Photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe and Sam Wagstaff at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York, (January 11 – February 24, 2018). Here, she remembers the hope and inspiration that Mapplethorpe provided her in the formative years of her career, and what it’s like to photograph one of the world’s top photographers.
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Photography Teresa Engle, courtesy of Daniel Cooney Fine Art