[”Las Meninas (Self Portrait)”, 1987 by Joel-Peter Watkin]
Second Street Gallery is hosting Joel Peter Witkin for FOTP and you have to stop by and see it. It definitely stands apart from the other two featured photographers; Mary Ellen Park with her Prom-goer Portraits, and James Nachtwey and his war photography. The latter two are very talented photographers but Witkin is in his own genre. They are not merely photographs but fantastic images of sex, death, and religion. A sign on the door warns, “For Mature Audiences”.
Witkin started taking photographs of Coney island freaks as a teenager, then while serving in the Vietnam war of documented dead soldiers and later worked in a morgue in Mexico. He also studied sculpture and got his MFA. His works show his background in the morbid but also show off his art education. He pulls from the works of great artists like Géricault, Picasso, Botticelli, and Velasquez, mixing his contemplation of the grotesque with high art.
His elaborately planned-out photos resemble dauerrotypes but are purposely scratched or toned to the point where they don’t really look like photographs. In a couple of his scenes, my companion and I had a hard time telling if we looking at a photo, a painting, or a photograph of a painting.
Among the intricate tableaux at SSG are also a few portraits, that seem simple at first glance but upon closer inspection are not what they first seemed: a beautiful nude in a head wrap actually has a man’s face screaming on the back of her head. And are those bats on top? Also, there’s this tiny phallic snake thing in one gloved hand. You can’t figure it out but you’re intrigued. A beautiful goddess in another piece is actually a transsexual. The longer you look, the more crazy stuff you notice. You forget you’re looking at a photograph because everything is so strange and surreal.
In “Poussin in Hell”, the deceased French classical artist is dead and tied to a chair but still managing to paint an abstract expressionistic picture that looks nothing like the nude model lounging across a chaise, who is actually posing in front of a real Poussin work. If you know anything about art history, the absurdity of this scene is boggling. A baby dangling above the model sports an exaggeratedly long phallus and your reaction is WTF? Is it part of the painted background or a plastic prop? No idea what it’s supposed to symbolize either but it’s one of the many bizarre but fascinating elements in this work. Once again, this is a photo. That means that creepy looking old man is a real corpse probably.
[”Poussin in Hell”, 1999]
A lot of people think Witkin’s work is dark and gruesome, focusing on death and perversion. Others think he’s ripping off classic art. Some argue he’s either a pervert or a genius. SSG did a good job of not just featuring the photos he did of dead bodies or deformed people, but more on the mythological and theatrical pieces. His works at SSG can be interpreted as being bold statements on life, spirituality, society, art, history, beauty, tolerance and so much more but that wasn’t my first impression when I left the gallery on Friday eve. I just thought, “Wow. Those were incredible. And insane.” As with each piece which takes awhile to absorb, (and the longer you look at it, the more you notice,) this show haunts me more each day. We are quite fortunate that SSG helped bring this exhibition to our Ville.
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Tagged as: Art, charlottesville, Festival of the Photograph, photography, second street gallery, Witkin
Oh, forgot to mention. The photo at the top looks like a pinting, right? It’s actually a photo of a little girl amputee.
I can see why you like that one so much… it’s the most abstract artsy exhibit of the many I saw. It’s also the least like what people think of as “photography” due to it’s intense staging and darkroom manipulations. It’s one of the most remarkable aspects of the festival that it truly embraces everything that is a photograph, crossing huge chasms of the medium. Insane is a great way to put Witkin’s work. There is so much effort in every print and I can’t begin to parse the meaning besides “horrific dreamscape.”
still, I think the truly must see stuff is at Les Yeux du Monde, where viewers will get severely depressed and hopefully be motivated to send money, time, and political aid to humans suffering around the world. We like to forget those people exist and pretend that war isn’t that bad, but Nachtwey confronts it in person. And not just war, but famine, poverty, human rights violations. There is intense power of these photographs, dropping us in the middle of the suffering without barriers. He was there and so now we are also there. It’s the best thing a photograph can be: a representation of something true frozen at its most powerful moment.
oh god, I just reread that… I think you’re totally valid in liking the witkin stuff because that’s what you’re into. And I think it’s pretty clear what I’m into. (read: pain)
Definitely my kind of artist
I have to get there!
Lisa - http://www.creativeemotion.com
pinkie, great writeup. i’ve forgotten most of my art history so i can’t really speak the language anymore, but you captured it quite succinctly.
@2 mc, those LYDM photos blew my freaking MIND. i just couldn’t leave the gallery. it is just as you said.
5: if you want, I’ll lend you the documentary about him, War Photographer. You can see some of those photos being shot as well as get an idea of what kind of man can confront such horror for so many years.
man, people are gonna be lined up around the block with my ringing endorsements.
They both sound very interesting. I’ll have to go check them out. Why won’t any of my comments on cVillain get posted?
Ok, I see we need a write up on James Nachtwey too. You wanna do it mc? It made me cry. It haunts parlie.
Nice job on this, thanks! I started to write a piece as well, but never finished…such is my life.
WItkin’s work is really challenging, but really worth it!
Ooh, WL, you gotta tell us more…
I know this is a longshot, but if anyone has any extra tickets to see Joel-Peter Witkin speak at the Paramount today, let me know because I have 2 friends who have planned for months to go see him but they did not get tickets because they didn’t realize it would sell out.
tell them to just show up. Mary Ellen Mark supposedly sold out, too, but there were seats available and I know a few people who got in without pre-bought tickets.
Thanks for the advice, I figure since its at 4 pm on a weekday some people who bought festival passes might not be attending. I will just bring them along and hopefully we can all see him.
Any luck darkstar?
No tickets yet, I think we are just going to show up and hope to get in.