PHOTOGRAPHS.
Pasadena: Twelvetrees Press, 1985. First edition. Hardcover. Witkin's first monograph boldly signed and inscribed by him on the title page. Joel-Peter Witkin is an American artist whose constructed photographs depict macabre often grotesque scenes. Working in the vein of the earlier photographers Henry Peach Robinson and Oscar Gustave Rejlander, Witkin carefully builds scenes with cadavers, hermaphrodites, and dwarfs which introduce literary, religious, and art historical allusions. “I have consecrated my life to changing matter into spirit with the hope of one day seeing it all. Seeing in its total form, while wearing the mask, from the distance of death,” the artist reflected. “And there, in the eternal destiny, to seek the face I had before the world was made.” Born on September 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, NY, Witkin earned his BA at the Cooper Union School of Art and later an MFA from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. A near fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. Item #14852
ISBN: 0942642155
Price: $375.00