Joel-Peter Witkin - Joel-Peter Witkin - 2007

This pocket-size catalogue of the American artist Joel-Peter Witkin's inimitable work includes a selection of more than 50 astonishing photographs, a collection that expresses the artist's unique point of view on an extraordinary segment of humanity. Witkin's powerful and transgressive images are renowned for their depiction of outsiders including dwarves, transsexuals, hermaphrodites and physically deformed people. They are equally appreciated for their high aesthetic refinement, referencing classical paintings, Baroque art, Surrealism and other genres including still lifes and religious episodes. Witkin has said that his vision and sensibility were initiated by an episode he witnessed as a small child--a car accident in front of his house in which a little girl was decapitated. He has also said that problems in his family were an influence: his Jewish father and Catholic mother parted over religious differences.