I worked on a asp.net core 1.1 project a while ago and use in projetc AutoMapper.
in asp.net core 1.1, I add services.AddAutoMapper() in startup file :<
services.AddAutoMapper()
try this, works with 2.1 and up, i have not used any previous version so can't tell.
services.AddAutoMapper(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies());