Joel Peter Witkin Analysis

Joel Peter Witkin is a Jewish American Photographer who was born on September 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a Jew and his mother belonged to the Roman Catholic. He had a twin brother, Jerome Witkin who was a prominent painter. Joel Peter together with his twin brother were raised up in an extremely religious atmosphere, which explains why most of the photographs by Joel Peter are Christian-oriented. Witkin acquired his first camera around 1955 and learned about the basics of using a camera at that time (Celent 179; Herve 13). Even his initial photographs were distinct, portraying the several upsetting experiences of his childhood. Joel-Peter Witkin was recruited into the army in 1961. Witkin enrolled in the army for three years as a combat photographer, so that he could manage his assignment as well. Between 1961 and 1964, Witkin photographed the Vietnam War. His tasks were to record on film the bodies of soldiers that had taken their lives or died in the course of training in accidents. In 1967, he made up his mind to become a freelance photographer. He became City Walls Inc. …show more content…
He first starts by creating an elegant display of the woman with some striking disfiguration. He captures the attention of the audience that would be pushed to analyze the photograph, and not just brush through it. A scene is recognizable, which is elaborated further by scratching the negative and toning the print. This gives the image an arty, historical appearance. He must have imitated this from the dominant and famous paintings, which becomes the basis of his photography. The Venus goddess is reworking of the Velazquez “Las Meninas” characteristics. At the center of the photograph, the Venus goddess is represented as a legless girl suspended on a cage like round skirt. Witkin’s type of Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” is substituted by preoperative transsexual (Herve