JOEL PETER WITKIN

ENGLISH TEXT

Eugenia Parry
Joel-Peter Witkin (b.1939) is one of the most well-known and controversial photographic artists working today
This accessible and affordable monograph is the best introduction to Witkin's fascinating and thought-provoking work available
Drawing as much from the art of the past – Bosch, Goya, Velazquez, and the Symbolists – as from his own inspiration, Witkin's expression is multi-faceted and rich with meaning
His deviant and imaginative tableaux transform the genre of still life by featuring animal and human corpses and body parts in classic, beautiful arrangements
Witkin also chooses the deformed, the scarred and the unusual as his subjects, reinterpreting the nineteenth-century fascination with the 'other'
His obsession with human physicality raises important questions about the body and sexuality, and finds beauty in the grotesque

Eugenia Parry has taught, lectured and written extensively about nineteenth century and contemporary art and photography for over 30 years. She is a specialist on the work of Joel-Peter Witkin and also contributed a text on the photographer to his influential early monograph, The Bone House (1998).