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.
Robert MapplethorpeI played around with the flowers and the lighting, so that was a good way to educate myself
Robert MapplethorpeI'm not photographing anything naked these days. I haven't been concentrating on bodies recently.
Robert MapplethorpeI like to look at pictures, all kinds. And all those things you absorb come out subconsciously one way or another. You'll be taking photographs and suddenly know that you have resources from having looked at a lot of them before. There is no way you can avoid this. But this kind of subconscious influence is good, and it certainly can work for one. In fact, the more pictures you see, the better you are as a photographer.
Robert Mapplethorpe