Joel-Peter Witkin (born September 13, 1939) is an American photographer who lives in

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding i ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

. His work often deals with themes such as death, corpses (and sometimes dismembered portions thereof), often featuring ornately decorated photographic models, including

people with dwarfism The following is a list of people who are known for their dwarfism and who have been open about it. While these people are not known for being the ''shortest ever'', they have been mentioned in sources describing how the condition has affected ...

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

and

intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical b ...

persons, as well as people living with a range of physical features which Witkin is often praised for presenting in poses which celebrate and honor their physiques in an elevated, artistic manner. Witkin's complex tableaux often recall religious episodes or classical paintings.

Biography

Witkin was born to a Jewish father and

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

mother. His twin brother,

Jerome Witkin Jerome Witkin (born September 13, 1939) is an American figurative artist whose paintings deal with political, social and cultural themes, along with serious portraiture that melds the sitter's social position with a speaking likeness that reveals ...

, and son Kersen Witkin, are also painters. Witkin's parents divorced when he was young because they were unable to overcome their religious differences. He attended grammar school at Saint Cecelia's in Brooklyn and went on to Grover Cleveland High School. In 1961 Witkin enlisted in the United States Army with the intention of capturing war photography during the

Vietnam war The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. However, due to scheduling conflicts, Witkin never saw combat in Vietnam. Witkin spent his military time at Fort Hood, Texas, and was mostly in charge of Public Information and classified photos. In 1967, he became the official photographer for City Walls Inc. He attended

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique ...

in New York, where he studied sculpture, attaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974.

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

granted him a scholarship for graduate school, but his Master of Fine Arts degree is from the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

Influences and themes

Witkin claims that his vision and sensibility spring from an episode he witnessed as a young child, an automobile accident in front of his house in which a little girl was

decapitated Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...

. He says his family's difficulties also influenced his work. His favorite artist is

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/ Proto-Renaissance period. G ...

. His photographic techniques draw on early

Daguerreotypes Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre an ...

and on the work of

E. J. Bellocq Ernest Joseph Bellocq (1873–3 October 1949) was an American professional photographer who worked in New Orleans during the early 20th century. Bellocq is remembered for his haunting photographs of the prostitutes of Storyville, New Orleans' le ...

. Those of Witkin's works which use corpses have had to be created in Mexico to get around restrictive US laws. Because of the transgressive nature of the contents of his images, his works have been labelled exploitative and have sometimes shocked public opinion. His techniques include scratching the negative, bleaching or toning the print, and using a hands-in-the-chemicals printing technique. This experimentation began after seeing a 19th-century

ambrotype The ambrotype (from grc, ἀμβροτός — “immortal”, and — “impression”) also known as a collodion positive in the UK, is a positive photograph on glass made by a variant of the wet plate collodion process. Like a p ...

of a woman and her ex-lover who had been scratched from the frame. Joel-Peter Witkin's photograph "Sanitarium" inspired the final presentation of Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer 2001 collection based on avian imagery, the walls of another box within the faux psychiatric ward collapsed to reveal a startling tableau vivant: a reclining, masked nude breathing through a tube and surrounded by fluttering moths.

Documentary

In July 2011, filming began on the feature-length documentary, Joel-Peter Witkin: An Objective Eye. The film, directed by Thomas Marino, examines Witkin's life and photographs. Along with interviews with Joel-Peter Witkin, the film features interviews from gallery owners, prominent artists, photographers, and scholars who share insight into the impact of Witkin's work and influence on modern culture. Filming took place in

, Los Angeles, New York City, and Paris. The film was released on July 6, 2013 for digital download and streaming/rental. The film will be part of the permanent collections at the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

in Paris, France, and the

Biblioteca Nacional de Chile The National Library of Chile () is the national library of Chile. It is located on the Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins in Santiago, in a building completed in 1925, though its history reaches to the early nineteenth century before ...

in Santiago, Chile. "Joel-Peter Witkin: An Objective Eye" was first publicly shown in Santiago, Chile at the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile on July 31, 2013, as part of the opening of the exhibition, "Vanitas: Joel-Peter Witkin en Chile". Those in attendance of this premiere included Joel-Peter Witkin, his wife Barbara, and gallery owner Baudoin Lebon. In 2017, a documentary about him and his brother,

, was made by Trisha Ziff, entitled Witkin and Witkin.

Exhibitions

* 1959: Group show at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC * 1981: Group show at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art * 1983: Exhibited in

Kansas City Art Institute The Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) is a private art school in Kansas City, Missouri. The college was founded in 1885 and is an accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design and Higher Learning Commission. It has approx ...

. Exhibited in Stedelijk Mus, Amsterdam. * 1985: Exhibited in San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Group show at the Whitney Biennial * 1986: Exhibited in Brooklyn Museum. Group show at Palis de Tokyo, Paris * 1988: Exhibited in Centro de Arte Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid. * 1989: Exhibited in Palais de Tokyo, Paris. * 1991: Exhibited in Museum Of Modern Art Haifa, Israel * 1995: Exhibited in Guggenheim Museum, NYC. Exhibited in II Castello de Rivoli Museum., Turin * 1996: Exhibited in Rencontres de la Photograpie, Arles, France. Group show at La Photographie Contemporaine en France * 1997: Group show at Hayward Gallery, London * 1998: Exhibited in Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe. Group show at

Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art The Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg (MAMCS, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) is an art museum in Strasbourg, France, which was founded in 1973 and opened in its own building in November 1998. One of the largest of its ...

* 1999: Group show at The Louvre, Paris * 2000: Group show at Musée Bourdelle, Paris. Group show at The High Mus. Art, Ga., * 2002: Group show at National Gallery of Canada. Group show at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Group show at The Whitney Museum, NYC * 2004: Group show at National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. * 2005: Exhibited in Moscow House of Photography. Group show at Guggenheim, Bilbao. Group show at Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago * 2007: Exhibited in ''The Invisible Landscape'', National Gallery of Canada * 2010: Exhibited in ''Bodies'', Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm, * 2012: Exhibited in ''Heaven or Hell'',

, Paris. * 2013: Exhibited in "Vanitas: Joel-Peter Witkin en Chile",

, Santiago. Joel-Peter Witkin: An Objective Eye documentary premiered at the opening of this exhibition.

Biography

Influences and themes

Documentary

Exhibitions

Notes

External links