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

Albuquerque, New Mexico Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

. 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 ...

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and

intersex Intersex people are those 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 binar ...

persons, as well as people living with a range of physical features. Witkin is often praised for presenting these figures in poses which celebrate and honor their physiques in an elevated, artistic manner. Witkin's complex ''

tableaux vivants A (; often shortened to ; ; ) is a static scene (performing arts), scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or theatrical scenery, scenery, and may be s ...

'' often recall religious episodes or classical paintings.

Biography

Witkin was born to a Jewish father and

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

mother. His twin brother, Jerome Witkin, 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 (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. However due to scheduling conflicts, Witkin never saw combat in Vietnam. Witkin spent his military service at

Fort Hood, Texas Fort Cavazos is a United States Army Military installation, post located near Killeen, Texas. The post is currently named after Gen. Richard E. Cavazos, a native Texan and the US Army’s first Hispanic four-star general. The post is located ha ...

, 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, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

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

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

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; ) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1889 by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature, it is the state's second oldest university, a flagship university in th ...

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

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 is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common ...

. 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, was an List of Italian painters, Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the International Gothic, Gothic and Italian Ren ...

. His photographic techniques draw on early

Daguerreotypes Daguerreotype was the first publicly available photography, photographic process, widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre and introduced worldwid ...

and on the work of E. J. Bellocq. 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 Transgressive may mean: *Transgressive art, a name given to art forms that violate perceived boundaries *Transgressive fiction, a modern style in literature *Transgressive Records, a United Kingdom-based independent record label *Transgressive (l ...

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, 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. As a cheaper alternative to the French daguerreotype, ambrotypes came to replace them. Like a ...

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 Lee Alexander McQueen (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen (brand), Alexander McQueen label in 1992 and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His ac ...

’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 films

In 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 Witkin, the film includes interviews from gallery owners, artists, photographers, and scholars who share insight into the impact of Witkin's work and influence on modern culture. The film was released in 2013. It will be part of the permanent collections at the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

in Paris, 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, Chile, Santiago, in a building completed in 1925, though its history reaches to the early nineteent ...

in Santiago, Chile. ''Joel-Peter Witkin: An Objective Eye'' was first publicly shown in Santiago, Chile at the Biblioteca Nacional de Chile in 2013, as part of the opening of the exhibition, ''Vanitas: Joel-Peter Witkin en Chile''. In 2017, a documentary about him and his brother, Jerome Witkin, was made by Trisha Ziff, entitled ''Witkin and Witkin''.

Publications

*''Gods of Heaven and Earth''. Twelvetrees, 1989. . *''Joel-Peter Witkin, Twelve Photographs in Gravure'' (1994) *''Harms Way: Lust and Madness, Murder and Mayhem''. Twin Palms, 1994. . *''Joel-Peter Witkin: a Retrospective''. Scalo: 1995. .

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*''Joel-Peter Witkin: Forty Photographs'',

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

, Brooklyn, New York, 1986;

La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smit ...

, San Diego, CA, 1987 * ''Vanitas: Joel-Peter Witkin en Chile'',

, Santiago, 2013. '' Joel-Peter Witkin: An Objective Eye'' documentary premiered at the opening of this exhibition.

Group exhibitions

* ''Bodies'', Fotografiska Museum, Stockholm, 2010 * ''Heaven or Hell'',

, Paris, 2012

Collections

Witkin's work is held in the following permanent collections: *

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, Chicago, IL: 7 prints (as of 28 March 2023) *

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

, Atlanta, GA: 1 print (as of 28 March 2023) *

J. Paul Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

, Los Angeles, CA: 7 prints (as of 28 March 2023) *

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, Washington, D.C. *

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, Los Angeles, CA: 6 prints (as of 28 March 2023) *

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía The ''Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía'' ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre"; MNCARS) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía. I ...

, Madrid, Spain: 3 prints (as of 28 March 2023) *

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

, Philadelphia, PA: 7 prints (as of 28 March 2023) * Princeton Art Museum, Princeton, NJ: 24 works (as of 28 March 2023) *

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

, San Francisco, CA: 4 prints (as of 28 March 2023) *

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

, Washington, D.C.: 2 prints (as of 28 March 2023) *

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

, Amsterdam, Holland *

Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

, New York: 1 print (as of 26 March 2023)

Films about Witkin

*''Joel-Peter Witkin: An Objective Eye'' (2013) – feature-length documentary directed by Thomas Marino *''Witkin and Witkin'' (2017) – feature-length documentary directed by Trisha Ziff, about Witkin and his brother Jerome

Notes

External links

*
Joel-Peter Witkin: Tribute to a Genius
at correnticalde.com
Photographs by Witkin
at zonezero.com

at art-forum.org

''The Journal of Joel-Peter Witkin'' at 21stphotography.com
Joel-Peter Witkin: An Objective Eye
at witkinmovie.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Witkin, Joel-Peter 1939 births Living people Photographers from New York City Jewish American artists Nude photographers Obscenity controversies in photography Censorship in the arts Artists from Albuquerque, New Mexico People from Brooklyn Columbia University alumni Cooper Union alumni University of New Mexico alumni 20th-century American photographers 21st-century American photographers Identical twins