The definitive collection of Robert Mapplethorpe's flower photographs in an elegant new edition. Robert Mapplethorpe is one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, known for his pioneering and provocative work. He studied painting, drawing, and sculpture in America in the 1960s and began photographing when he acquired a Polaroid in 1970. From 1973 until his death in 1989, Mapplethorpe explored the world of flowers with extraordinary dedication, using a range of photographic processes—from Polaroids to dye-transfer colors. In carefully constructed compositions, he captured roses, orchids, snapdragons, daisies, tulips, and other species—common and rare—and forever transformed the way we perceive a classic and familiar subject. The result—a stunning body of work—is collected in this elegant book, with a foreword by Mapplethorpe's close friend Dimitri Levas and an introduction by Herbert Muschamp.