Joel Peter-Witkin - Seminar Presentation

Joel Peter-Witkin was born in 1939; an American artist and still active in his practice. Witkin moved to Mexico where he now lives due to more relaxed rules regarding his artwork and he enjoys the freedom the country provides him. The following images are a couple of his more iconic and recognisable pieces:

Witkin explores various themes in his work, most have an undertone of death and involve distortion and eroticism. Major themes he explores are: Sexuality, outsiders and religion.

The theme of sexuality is extremely prevalent in Witkin's work; it is almost always a taboo or controversial subject in his images, rarely - if ever does he depict "ordinary" sexualities. He photographs a lot of transsexuals and hermaphrodites, and explores other topics such as bestiality and masturbation. His work depicts excessive fetishism, to the extent that many have referred to it as pornographic and one critic, Gerry Badger, asking the question "Is if profoundly perverted, or merely exploitative." 

Witkin photographs models who he refers to as "outsiders" these are the people excluded from the "normality" of society; dwarves, amputees and anyone with other physical deformations. He also classes transsexuals, hermaphrodites as "outsiders" in his work as well. 

Both of Witkin's parents were religious, his mother was Roman Catholic and his father was Jewish, they split when he was a child as they were unable to overcome their religious differences; perhaps this is why Witkin's work has so many religious images and motifs in it. Witkin insists that all of his work is religious, from his early sado-masochistic work to his recent art involving the photographing of cadavers, declaring: "I will be remembered as a Christian artist." I find his devout religiosity fascinating as many Christians, and members of other religions for that matter, would see his work as offensive, inappropriate and even blasphemous. Below are a few examples of his work involving religious themes:

Translates [A time when transsexuals are in power and all religious are their servants. Everything is part of history. From the murder of God on earth; to the shit a rat claws in the dark.]

Translates [I was born and raised with this sexual controversy, enduring jeering and insults and humiliations. My family was ashamed of me for being queer. It is not my fault I was born this way. Tired of all the scolding I left home, I studied and I fought it all off. I made my life and I am very happy. May it be God's will that they understand me some day and I give thanks to San Sebastian because I came safely through the operation that changed my life.]

Interestingly this piece is also an example of Witkin's love of classical art and how much it inspires his own work, the figure on the left-hand side is Witkin's representation of the iconic St. Sebastian, shown here:

 Much of Witkin's work is heavily influenced by classical art, a lot of it depicts representations of classic figures such as Greek and Roman gods. I find this aspect of his work fascinating as I love classical artwork and am constantly trying to find ways to incorporate it in my own, more contemporary, work. This is something I think Witkin has been particularly successful in, and is one of the many reasons I admire his work. Not everyone would agree with me, one critic went so far as to decribe Witkin's work as "degrading art history."

Witkin's work is heavily criticised and controversial due to his extreme subject matter of macabre, fetishism, death and disability. His most criticised work, unsurprisingly, features human corpses as the "models", it was this work that caused Witkin to move to Mexico where he was allowed to work with unidentified corpses from the morgues. As an explanation for his obsession with death and morbidity Witkin tells us of an event from his childhood, he claims:

"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." 

In regards to his work Witkin explains: "My hope is not only to show the insanity of our lives, but also that this work will be seen as a part of the history of diverse and desperate times." Also stating "I wanted my photographs to be as powerful as the last thing a person sees or remembers before death."

As inspiration Witkin claims to mimic the work of early daguerreotype prints - staining, scratching and bleaching his negatives to create distress and aging in her work. He works incredibly slowly - producing around 10 new prints per year. his process of developing involves drenching negatives in tea or coffee, covering in wax and heating, scratching with razorblades and poking with pins. One could argue that Witkin tortures his work in imitation of the pain that so many of his models must feel in everyday life - in essence paying homage to their suffering. 

I personally love Witkin's work, I feel that he challanges taboos, controversies and social boundaries in such an outrageous way that it leaves the viewer speechless, not quite sure how to feel. I admire his ability to create such strong reactions, both for and against his work and his talent for evoking all sorts of emotion and passion in his audience.