Historical Photographer: Joel-Peter Witkin

The Raft of George W. Bush (2006)
History of the White World: Arabia (2008)

Joel-Peter Witkin was born in 1939 in Brooklyn, New York to a Roman-Catholic mother and Jewish father. Unable to settle their religious differences, Witkin's parents divorced when he was young. Between 1960 and 1964, Witkin worked as a war photographer for the Vietnam War. In 1967 he started work as a freelance photographer and became head photographer for City Walls Inc. After that he attended Cooper Union in New York, and got a degree in sculpture in 1974. He finally obtained his Master of Fine Arts from the University of New Mexico.

Witkin is known for creating very controversial images. Witkin uses live corpses in some of his images, and his process has sometimes prevented him from being able to work in America, forcing him to make his images in Mexico. Most of Witkin's work deals with themes such as death, and the outsider; Witkin uses not only corpses, but "outsiders" such as dwarves, hermaphrodites, and transsexuals. He takes inspiration from old daguerreotypes and often uses baroque staging for his images.

In the images above, baroque influences are easily seen. The Raft of George W. Bush takes its inspiration from the painting The Raft of the Medusa, with dramatic staging and figures filling nearly the entire frame. The figures are arrayed in various stances of distress, and there is a strong directional quality to the image, with limbs and eye gaze directing one around the image. The second image is a portrait, but the inclusion of the skull and skeletal hand, coupled with the girl's deformed arm, speaks not of beauty, but more of death and corruption.

The raft image is a commentary on the nature of George W. Bush's administration, as a capsizing raft, doomed to be destroyed. Bush plays the role of the captain, whose foolishness has resulted in the destruction of the raft in the midst of a storming sea. The portrait is clearly about death; the figure is dressed in black, and although her face is young and fresh, one hand is skeletal while the other is deformed.

To make the raft photo, Witkin staged the entire scene, later adding in a background. Witkin commonly used a "hands-in-the-chemicals" printing technique, and often scratched or bleached the negative. Daguerreotypes were a special interest of his.

One source that I looked at stated that Witkin's preoccupation with death in his photos stems from a traumatic childhood experience where he witnessed a gruesome car accident. Witkin forces the viewer to confront death, and consciously make a decision about whether or not it is acceptable, or can even be beautiful. The raft photo of course critiques the Bush administration, but by placing it in a classical setting, forces the viewer to see both the tragedy and foolishness of the administration (at least, in Witkin's eyes).

I don't usually like gruesome, sexual pictures. So by saying that I like his work, I'm not saying that I particularly like his subject matter. But I do really love his technique, and the way he recreates baroque paintings, and other portraiture from the past. I like the look of daguerreotypes too, and there's something creepy but fascinating about his work.