Witkin, who finished college in 1986, has a body of work unlike any other. His portrayal of the grotesque and obscene is appalling and dignified all at once. His art speaks of someone well educated in art history, emulating many Renaissance painters. He plans out each piece painstakingly before he even begins to solicit for the the oddities, brave souls and dead bodies that populate his macabre arrangements, which he then heavily manipulates in the darkroom, going even so far as to pierce and scratch the negatives. I love the way his art challenges the viewer to understand the way they feel afterwards, with its myriad references to historical paintings and literature. I can only hope that, one day, my compositions are as educated and my work as stirring.
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