9. Joel Peter-Witkin (Visual artist, photographer)
JP-W’s photography has influenced the aesthetics of hundreds of other artists and films. His subject matter often revolves around the juxtaposition of human body parts and other objects and materials. They are still lives of the macabre.
He cites the following event from his childhood as the well spring from which all of his work was born:“It happened on a Sunday when my mother was escorting my twin brother and me down the steps of the tenement where we lived. We were going to church. While walking down the hallway to the entrance of the building, we heard an incredible crash mixed with screaming and cries for help. The accident involved three cars, all with families in them. Somehow, in the confusion, I was no longer holding my mother’s hand. At the place where I stood at the curb, I could see something rolling from one of the overturned cars. It stopped at the curb where I stood. It was the head of a little girl. I bent down to touch the face, to speak to it — but before I could touch it someone carried me away”