Joel Peter Witkin: A photographic display of those birthed through incest...

Joel-Peter Witkin is a photographer whose images of the human condition are undeniably powerful. For more than twenty years he has pursued his interest in spirituality and how it impacts the physical world in which we exist. Finding beauty within the grotesque, Witkin pursues this complex issue through people most often cast aside by society -- human spectacles including hermaphrodites, dwarfs, amputees, carcases, people with odd physical capabilities, fetishists and...

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"It happened on a Sunday when my mother was escorting my twin brother and me down the steps of the tenement where we lived. We were going to church. While walking down the hallway to the entrance of the building, we heard an incredible crash mixed with screaming and cries for help. The accident involved three cars, all with families in them. Somehow, in the confusion, I was no longer holding my mother’s hand. At the place where I stood at the curb, I could see something rolling from one of the overturned cars. It stopped at the curb where I stood. It was the head of a little girl. I bent down to touch the face, to speak to it — but before I could touch it someone carried me away.”

Joel-Peter Witkin
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"I’ve been obsessed with Joel Peter Witkin’s photographs for a long time now. Witkin is famous for using deformed people, dwarves, hermaphrodites, and cadavers in his eerie, intricately composed photos that draw from religious iconography, Surrealism, and Baroque art. He’s been accused of being exploitative, but I think his pieces are quite beautiful, and he treats his subjects with respect and even reverence. The Nine Inch Nails’ video for Closer was inspired by Witkin’s art."
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His work often deals with such themes as death, corpses (or pieces of them) and various outsiders such as dwarfs, transsexuals, hermaphrodites and physically deformed people. His complex tableaux often recall religious episodes or famous classical paintings. Because of the transgressive nature of the contents of his pictures, his works have been labeled exploitative and have sometimes shocked public opinion. His art was often marginalized because of this challenging aspect.