>> A few of them were iconoclastic and a few were homoerotic.  Most were not.

May I put a caveat on that?

Most he allowed for display in major museums were not. But he had hundreds that were shown in smaller, more private exhibtions in SF and NY that certainly cemented his reputation amoung the SM/BD crowd, as well as his almost overtly romantic studies of nude gay male couples. Robert was very much a part of the NY leather scene and reveled in it, with a particular fondness (so to speak) for black men, many of whom he photographed, which inevitably led to charges that he was not only a homosexual but a racist one at that (!), a charge that was far from true and frankly never made one whit of sense save to arch-conservative black leaders in the late 70s and early 80s. Quite simply, he simply had his preferences, and that was pretty well that.

There have been a few publications of Robert's photography, but none have really done him justice. Folks even now think of him as this radical, marginal photographer who used sensationalism as a means of getting publicity. While he was quite good at that, he was also an extremely talented photographer who dared to approach his subject matter with the same care and artistic density as Ansel Adams gave his landscapes. He liked to shock, but he was also capable of stunning still lifes.

docandraider.com -- the collected cartoons of Doc and Raider