Copyright suit over well-known Mapplethorpe 'self-portraits' seeks $65M
Well-known photographs of deceased artist Robert Mapplethorpe that have for decades been identified, shown and sold as self-portraits were in fact taken by someone else, a federal copyright suit contends.
Filed in Manhattan this week, it alleges that fellow photographer James R. “Bobby” Miller actually took the four photos at issue in 1979 at Mapplethorpe’s loft and seeks $65 million in damages, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. The photos show Mapplethorpe, wearing makeup that the plaintiff says he himself applied, with the subject’s hair coiffed in a manner that could be considered feminine. Mapplethorpe is shirtless in one shot and wearing a fur collar in others.
In fact, it appears that Miller may have physically taken the photos, but that makes no difference concerning the copyright, according to a representative of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, which was named as a defendant along with prominent museums and galleries.
“It was Mapplethorpe’s studio, his camera,” foundation president Michael Ward Stout told the newspaper. “With almost every artist doing a self-portrait, you have to have someone click the shutter. When you look at those pictures, that’s a Mapplethorpe composition.”
However, Miller’s lawyer, Edward Westfield, tells a different story, contending that his client not only operated the camera shutter but “was solely responsible for conceiving the idea of photographing Robert Mapplethorpe in drag,” putting on the subject’s makeup, styling his hair, adjusting lighting and composing the photos before clicking the shutter. Then, Miller says, he left the film to be developed by Mapplethorpe’s assistant.
Westfield said Miller has been trying for 27 years to get credit for his work, to no avail, the newspaper reports.
A Hyperallergic post says Miller claims he first realized the authorship of the photos had been misattributed when he spotted them at a Whitney Museum exhibition in 1988.
Representatives of the museum and art gallery defendants declined the WSJ’s request for comment.
Related coverage:
Courthouse News: “Photog Wants Credit for Mapplethorpe in Drag”
See also:
New York Times (reg. req.): “Robert Mapplethorpe: In Search of Perfection”
Guggenheim: “Robert Mapplethorpe”
