American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe was born in Floral Park, Queens, on November 4, 1946. In 1963 he enrolled to study art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. In 1967 Robert Mapplethorpe meets Patti Smith, lyricist, singer and legendary "Godmother of Punk", unknown at the time, with whom he lives for several years. During his art studies, which he completed with a bachelor's degree, Robert Mapplethorpe began to experiment with different materials in his artwork. Through John McEndry, curator of prints and photography at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, with whom Robert Mapplethorpe is friends, he begins to be interested in photography. In 1970 he buys a Polaroid camera and initially integrates these first photographs of his own into his collages. He soon recognizes the possibilities that photography offers him as an independent art form. In 1973, his first solo exhibition, "Polaroids," was held at the Light Gallery in New York. 1977 he participates in the Documenta 6 in Kassel.