Research

JOEL PETER WITKIN -

I was recommended to look at his work as he uses a lot of masks and disguises in his work and his work challenges our perceptions of beauty. His work is also strongly affected by the style of printing he uses,.. using film and darkroom techniques to create an old and dark feeling to his work. This is similar to the feel I have created through the use of the Holga.

"Finding beauty within the grotesque, Witkin pursues this complex issue through people most often cast aside by society -- human spectacles including hermaphrodites, dwarfs, amputees, androgynes, carcases, people with odd physical capabilities, fetishists and "any living myth . . . anyone bearing the wounds of Christ." His fascination with other people's physicality has inspired works that confront our sense of normalcy and decency."

"Joel-Peter Witkin lets us look into his created world, which is both frightening and fascinating, as he seeks to dismantle our preconceived notions about sexuality and physical beauty. Through his imagery, we gain a greater understanding about human difference and tolerance."

"Much of discomfort arises because Witkin’s subjects (excluding his very earliest and very latest images) usually wear masks, eye-coverings, or false faces. In doing so, he denies us the signal indicator of personality –the countenance—only to replace it with another. What’s seen, what’s felt? Irreconcilable duality existing in a single entity."

His work reminds me in many ways of Diane Arbus,.. he as the same fascination with people on the edge of society who might have been seen as "freaks". He confronts us with the things that we tend to avert our eyes to and through doing so exposes our fascination and questions our conceptions and acceptance of "normality" and "beauty".

He also makes a lot of references to past works of art by the old masters,.. and like this reference to Kertesz.