Mapplethorpe Still Makes Waves

Robert Mapplethorpe passed away from AIDS complications in 1987, but his landmark photography - much of it explicit in its homoeroticism - continues to make waves in the art world two decades later.

A new documentary, Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff & Robert Mapplethorpe, examines the artist's life and career, as well as his relationship with art collector Wagstaff, who was Mapplethorpe's lover and who helped to establish a market for photography as fine art.

Director James Crump features not only those iconic Mapplethorpe photographs but also interviews with the photographer's close friends, rock icon Patti Smith and writer Dominick Dunne.

Black White + Gray will be released both theatrically (via Arthouse Films) and on cable (Sundance Channel) before the end of the year.