From: Dave Rose (cactuscowboy@bresnan.net)
Date: 09/23/03-07:19:22 AM Z
I'm sure we've all been on a busy highway as traffic slows to a crawl, with
drivers casting eager glances at a grisly accident scene. It's this same
horrific curiousity that Witkin skillfully exploits. His photos remind me
of the driver ed movie I saw in junior high school...... A grainy B&W film
of state troopers pulling a charred corpse out of a smoldering pickup truck
that had hit a train. They're disturbing images that are hard to forget.
Is Witkin's work art? In my opinion, no.
Best regards,
Dave Rose
Big Wonderful Wyoming
----- Original Message -----
From: "Judy Seigel" <jseigel@panix.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2003 10:13 AM
Subject: Re: About Witkin
>
>
> On Mon, 22 Sep 2003 kateb@paradise.net.nz wrote:
>
> > ...Another aspect I think interesting is that the normal reaction to
> > difference is to stare, and the normal social inhibition is NOT to
stare.
> > Witkin gives a chance to really look at difference without causing
offence.
> > This may sounds shallow but I think is at least a little valid.
> >
> >
>
>
> But many of Witkin's most compelling images are pure invention -- nothing
> you'd find in "real life" to stare at. He may use corpses, but often in
> ways that could be something else, and other things he has entirely
> invented. That's not to deny that the straight frontal photograph of a
> "freak" has its own power... as witness the ghastly terrible heartbreaking
> photograph this year in the newspaper -- of twins cojoined at the head.
> The power/horror of that image was about as strong as any I've seen,
> grainy & flat as it was. But it wasn't "art."
>
> Judy
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : 10/01/03-03:09:00 PM Z CST