A classic, perhaps even Mapplethorpe's best book. For many, it is certainly the most typical work of Mapplethorpe, now available again thanks to this new edition. The Black Book, first published in 1986, features 96 formally rigorous and highly erotic nude photographs, all of black men, either as full-body shots or staged as details, as fragments of their bodies. Stylized like classical statues or provocative to showcase their presence and sensual aura. Black-and-white photography was Mapplethorpe's preferred medium, and his obsessive aesthetic was based on mastering it completely, allowing him to visualize numerous tonal gradations and delve deep into the pores of the shiny black skin. This method reached its peak in these images. The Black Book, Mapplethorpe's homage to the black male body, has always been one of his most important works.