Mapplethorpe - ideas for Assignment One

I know that it is a while away yet but I'm starting to think how I might approach my first assignment. This is all about creating between five and eight different portraits differing in type and style and each from a separate photographic session. Since the subject has to be the same person for all the images, I shall need to think carefully who that lucky person will be..

Came across this interesting take on photographing the human physique while reading 'Face The new photographic portrait' by William A. Ewing with Natalie Herschdorfer...(p225)

Robert Mapplethorpe  1980   Alisdair Butler

I really like this image - simple and complex at the same time - the sculptural aspect beautifully brought out by the lighting. I would love to know how Mapplethorpe how 'took' the image and the processes he used to achieve this amazing result. 

Wonder whether there might be some mileage in exploring a 'sculptural' approach ? Not sure exactly what I mean here ...more thinking around this to be done....

That said, black and white photography, let alone portraiture, is a real challenge for me and an area where I definitely need to improve my skills - at the moment very little of what I produce really seems to work...so need to crack on here, reading and experimenting ..