I feel like I have seen self portraits of Robert Mapplethorpe, but I never knew who he was. It was intriguing to see old footage of the chaos brought by the controversy of Mapplethorpe’s artwork. While his artwork involving sexual body parts made me personally a little uncomfortable, I understand that he was constantly pursuing the need to be unique and striking. One type of artwork I found interesting was when he used Polaroids and incorporated them with other art like drawings/ collage like pieces. I liked how people who knew him described him as if whatever he was doing was never enough, he was always doing whatever it took to be famous, and there was always something defiant about him. In all, I think what pursuing artists can learn from him is to constantly strive to be unique. I really don’t think that is an easy thing to do, but from what I saw, Mapplethorpe didn’t create a new medium. He used different mediums to create content that was just completely far out, startling, and new.