A photograph by Joel-Peter Witkin featuring a real severed arm obtained from a cadaver in Mexico.
 

Anyone who is a Republican has a spiritual problem.

—Joel-Peter Witkin

 
When photographer Joel-Peter Witkin got the idea to compose his photograph “The Raft of George W. Bush” in 2006 (which you can see below) he built upon the 1818 painting by French painter Théodore Géricault “The Raft of the Medusa.” To Witkin, Géricault’s masterpiece seemed to distinctly parallel the eight awful years the U.S. spent under the Republican administration of George W. Bush (You miss him right now, don’t you?). “The Raft of George W. Bush” took four weeks to complete and included a Bush lookalike who also worked at a zoo in Miami. Like the other photographs in Witkin’s large portfolio that spans nearly five decades, “The Raft of George W. Bush” though not as grotesque as much of his work, is still rather impossible to look away from.

Originally from Brooklyn, Witkin received his Masters in Fine Art at the University of New Mexico where he has lived and worked for most of his life. His photographs feature a variety of outcasts, circus performers and other humans who often operate on the outskirts of society. Distinctly dark in nature Witkin incorporates a wide variety emotions into his photos that run the gamut from sex to religion. For his more macabre works Witkin goes full-method using real limbs and heads of cadavers—something he is only able to do legally in Mexico. There is much to digest when it comes to Witkin’s work which contain elements of Surrealism, collage and homages to still-life “Vanitas” style paintings from the 1600s that use the symbolism of skulls to remind the viewer that the arrival of death is inevitable. While there are many of Witkin’s photos that I can’t show you here as they feature nudity too explicit for a family publication like DM (you can see them here if you’d like), I have posted what I still believe is a compelling cross-section of his photographs below. I’ve also included an excerpt from the 2013 documentary film on the artist, Joel-Peter Witkin: An Objective Eye.
 

‘The Raft of George W. Bush,’ 2006.
 

‘Bad Student,’ 2007.
 

‘Empire.’
 

‘Portrait of a Dwarf,’ 1987.
 

‘Still Life with Mirror,’ 2003.
 

‘Sailor Jim: The Lunacy of War,’ 2007.
 

‘Portrait of Nan.’
 

‘Harvest,’ 1984.
 

‘Performers in New Mexico,’ 2014.
 

‘Story from a Book.’
 

‘Still Life Marseilles,’ 1992.
 

‘Still Life, Mexico,’ 1984.
 

An extended exceprt from the 2013 documentary, ‘Joel-Peter Witkin: An Objective Eye.’

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Nightmarish horror photography from Russia
Slither sisters: Vintage images of female circus snake charmers and their reptilian friends