Saturday, March 30, 2013


Joel Peter Witkin
Las Meninas (Self-Portrait) by Joel Peter Witkin, 1987.


If photography is the art of fixing a shadow, glass is the medium that transfers shadows onto film. For Joel-Peter Witkin, whose elaborate tableaux reverberate with the extreme conditions of life and death, glass holds powerful associations.

Joel-Peter Witkin is an artist who distorts photographs using different techniques to create pieces that shock and intrigue. During the Vietman War, Witkin worked as a war photographer, and at a very young age he was already exposed to decapitation.

His works carry the delicate tonality of a 19th-century ambrotype, showing morphed scenes with human body parts and deceased subjects with a strong satirical sentiment against vanity. 

Some of his works:

Joel Peter Witkin
Joel Peter Witkin
Sanitarium
Joel Peter Witkin

Joel Peter WitkinJoel Peter Witkin

source: acidskull.com