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I just wrote about the Robert Mapplethorpe documentary, Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures, airing on HBO next week, because it’s the first complete look at the late photographer’s work. But I hear so many people say “his work is not for me” that to combat their ignorance, here are 30 great Robert Mapplethorpe photos – and not one offensive one in the bunch.

30 Great Robert Mapplethorpe Photos

Those only familiar with his more controversial work, such as the X Portfolio and other of his hardcore S&M images (neither of which have examples I can publish here without getting severely penalized by Google), incorrectly think of his work as merely shocking, grotesque and offensive.

“The X Portfolio centers on men engaged in gay sex, including hard-core sadomasochism. The subject wasn’t entirely new. In Greek vase decorations, Indian miniatures and pagan temple sculptures, candid and highly refined sex pictures, heterosexual and homosexual, have been around since before Alexander the Great and the Mahabharata.” – Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times Art Critic

And yes, several of those photos are hard to look at – but do not let that put you off enjoying his oeuvre. So much of his work reveals the beauty of human anatomy, the elegance of nature and exposes the wistfulness of the soul. And here are several examples, in no particular order.

Anemone, 1989