• Cover of Robert Mapplethorpe, Some Women, Bulfinch Press, Boston, 1992, showing a black-and-white close-up photograph of a woman's face cropped from the forehead to the chin, eyes gazing directly at the camera, against a dark background, with the title SOME WOMEN in white serif capitals at lower left and ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE in smaller white serif capitals above.
  • Reverse of Robert Mapplethorpe, Some Women, Bulfinch Press, 1992, showing the back of the dust jacket with a black-and-white portrait photograph of Robert Mapplethorpe, a brief biographical note, and publisher and ISBN information at lower right on a plain black ground.
  • Interior page from Robert Mapplethorpe, Some Women, Bulfinch Press, 1992, showing a black-and-white portrait of a woman in a dark top, her head turned slightly to the right, wearing a small drop earring, her expression composed and direct, against a plain dark background, with the page number visible at lower left.
  • Interior page from Robert Mapplethorpe, Some Women, Bulfinch Press, 1992, showing a black-and-white extreme close-up of a woman's face cropped from the brow to the chin, the eyes gazing directly at the camera with a calm, neutral expression, the face lit to emphasise skin texture and the geometry of the features against a dark background.
  • Interior page 42 from Robert Mapplethorpe, Some Women, Bulfinch Press, 1992, showing a black-and-white portrait of a Black woman in three-quarter profile, wearing a dark top and a close-fitting dark head covering with a long tail, a small drop earring visible, her gaze directed slightly upward and to the left, against a dark grey background, page number 42 at lower left.
  • Interior page from Robert Mapplethorpe, Some Women, Bulfinch Press, 1992, showing a black-and-white composite of four sequential photographs of a female dancer in a white ruffled top, black cycling shorts, striped knee socks, and black shoes, each frame capturing a different exaggerated pose — leaning, jumping, crouching, and standing — against a grey background.
  • Interior spread from Robert Mapplethorpe, Some Women, Bulfinch Press, 1992, pages 106–107, showing two black-and-white portraits: left page showing a woman with dark shoulder-length hair, eyes closed, hand raised to her cheek, in a sleeveless black top; right page showing the back of a woman's head with a precise platinum blonde bob cut, both against dark backgrounds.
  • Interior spread from Robert Mapplethorpe, Some Women, Bulfinch Press, 1992, pages 38–39, showing two black-and-white photographs: left page a close-up of crossed legs in fishnet stockings against a dark background; right page a close-up of a foot in a high-heeled patent leather stiletto with ankle straps, against a dark grey background.
  • Interior page from Robert Mapplethorpe, Some Women, Bulfinch Press, 1992, showing a black-and-white portrait of Patti Smith, photographed outdoors against a background of dried straw or reeds, wearing a dark knitted sweater, her dark hair loose with a fringe, holding a braid of her hair in both hands, looking directly at the camera with a composed, direct expression.
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Bulfinch Press

Robert Mapplethorpe — Some Women, Bulfinch Press, 1992

Robert Mapplethorpe — Some Women, Bulfinch Press, 1992

£65.00 GBP
£65.00 GBP
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Hardcover with illustrated dust jacket, 25.5 × 30.5 cm, 116 pages, black-and-white duotone reproductions throughout. Introduction by Joan Didion. Good vintage condition: light shelf wear and handling marks consistent with age, minor rubbing and gentle toning to the dust jacket. A clean, highly presentable copy.

Published three years after Robert Mapplethorpe’s death, Some Women gathers eighty-six portraits spanning the final decade of his career. Conceived as one of his last publishing projects, the book presents actresses, musicians, artists, writers, models, and anonymous sitters with the same formal precision that defined his practice. Joan Didion’s introduction situates the photographs within Mapplethorpe’s pursuit of beauty, restraint, and classical composition, providing one of the most perceptive contemporary texts written about his work.

Unlike Black Book, Flowers, or Lady, Lisa Lyon, this volume focuses exclusively on female portraiture, bringing together images of figures including Patti Smith, Grace Jones, Yoko Ono, Isabella Rossellini, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon, Sigourney Weaver, and Cyndi Lauper. Rather than functioning as a celebrity book, it reveals Mapplethorpe’s consistent approach to portraiture: every sitter receives the same sculptural treatment, where light, gesture, and geometry become more important than fame itself.

The publication belongs to an important moment in early-1990s photography publishing. Following the debates surrounding The Perfect Moment exhibition and Mapplethorpe’s death in 1989, institutions and publishers increasingly treated his books as definitive statements rather than exhibition companions. Some Women stands among the strongest examples of this shift, functioning simultaneously as a memorial publication, a monograph, and a carefully edited survey of one aspect of his photographic legacy.

Today, the book remains widely held in museum and academic libraries but is becoming increasingly difficult to source in genuinely clean condition. The matte dust jacket, black boards, and large-format construction are particularly susceptible to rubbing, edge wear, and fading, making well-preserved copies increasingly desirable to collectors of photography, post-war portraiture, and late twentieth-century artist books.

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