“The mixture of the grotesque and the tragic is agreeable to the spirit, as are discords to the jaded ear.”
― Charles Baudelaire
Air is expelled from your lungs in a rush and your center of gravity is completely lost. Infinite sensations crawl across your body and this feelings of loss can only be evoked through the power of grotesque photography. If you feel chills covering your skin then you know the photographer has succeeded. The main objective of these images, no matter their genre, is to make us feel, to rip from our very innards our most primal instincts. A tear in the corner of the eye, a gasp of surprise, and a cringe will be some of the movements our bodies will not be able to withhold as we explore the work of these photographers.
One side of the coin, photography is an artistic medium that allows experimentation, and the results can be energizing and inspiring. On the other side, these images can be repudiated and despised by a society that is yet too green to truly appreciate their artistry.
These photographers break every paradigm and make use of the grotesque to create images that cross all boundaries we have put in place.
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Joel-Peter Witkin
When we think of out-of-the-box photographers, Joel-Peter Witkin comes immediately to mind. This American photographer uses corpses as models to discuss themes like death. Witkin’s work is highly controversial. His striking photographs acquire a grotesque and macabre aspect since in the development process he scratches the negative, giving an antique look to the images.
When he was a child he witnessed a car accident where a girl was decapitated. According to Witkin, this event marked him for life and became one of the engines fueling his creative work. “The Kiss” photograph that shows two heads kissing each other is one of the most noted images of Witkin. In reality, we are observing the same head that was cut in half and each side faces each other, simulating a kiss.
Sex, death, and malformations form a fundamental part of his work. Many times he takes a leaf from biblical stories as a source of inspiration and leans on artists from the fourteenth century, such as Giotto, a precursor of the Italian Renaissance.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art published a collection of his works called Joel-Peter Witkin: Forty Photographs and in its introduction Van Deren Coke reiterates that this photographs intends his images to repel and shock. His images are not one dimensional since they also have tender an enlightened qualities that are emotionally moving. “Symbols such as ladders, black clouds, masks, and severed heads are prominent,” Coke adds. Even Witkin admits the heavy use of symbolism in his work, “I am a person who could relate to human beings as a human being, but visually I continued to relate to people mainly through symbols. I understood that my images were a kind of automatic writing, the feedback of my consciousness.”
Life and death are the most profound mysteries for this photographer and he intends to unravel their enigma through jarring images.
“I wanted my photographs to be as powerful as the last thing a person sees or remembers before death” – Joel-Peter Witkin
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David Nebreda
Diagnosed with schizophrenia since the age of 19 while studying Beaux Arts, the contact this photographer has had with the outside world is limited. Locked in a small two-bedroom apartment in Madrid, Nebrada communicates through the language of photography. Isolated from the world and the media, the sole model we see in the images is Nebrada himself.
His work has surprised many, particularly because of the way he plays with light. His works speak of a personal journey, showing the pain that has been inflicted upon him due to the disorder. It is a self-destructive reality where humiliation permeates the images.
He takes no medication, and he is completely walled off from the outside world, in fact he does’t own a radio or television. He subjects himself to severe fasts, which maintains his incredibly skinny physique. His torment and pain are projected on the images he takes of himself.
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Jan Saudek
This photographer born in Prague shows the viewers the fetishes and deliriums that exist through the power of photography. He is known since the 1970s for hand painting the photographs after capturing them in black and white. He takes inspiration from the works of Balthaus, Bernard Faucon, and religious motifs. There is a baroque and surrealist feel to his work that creates a dreamworld. Naked bodies, mostly composed of women, show a dark world that exists only in the delirious dreams of the photographer.
Bogged down by the communist regime, Saudek worked tirelessly on his photography in the dark cellar of his home. He shows us an intriguing and grotesque eroticism of nudes. He luxuriates on human nature and his photographs celebrate every stage from birth to death. No stone is left unturned in his work, he jumps from love and hate to beauty and ugliness.
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Daikichi Amano
Amano is a Japanese photographer who wields myths and legends as the inspirational tools in his photography. Monsters and warriors come alive to voice his darkest desires and deepest fears. He constructs characters using commonplace objects, creating a grotesque world. In multiple photographs we see tentacles covering the bodies of people, a fetish that has become part of Japan’s pornography.
He depicts a hidden world of fantasy that only exists within himself. He straddles a thin line between art photos and hardcore pornography. It is believed that this fetishism with cephalapods arose due to censorship laws, which ban genitalia shots and tentacles apparently were the obvious substitutes for penises. There are no limits to his work and he proudly asserts this, “I don’t know by what the other persons feel too extreme a photography but I myself think that I am taking photographs because there is not a consciousness too extreme.“
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Stefan Heilemann
Heilemann is a german designer and photographer who uses digital manipulation to create visceral atmospheres where the color red permeates the darkness. His style is quite gothic, which has made his very popular in some scenes like heavy metal. He is known to have designed the covers of several heavy metal bands over the years. He creates bizarre, macabre, and beautiful horror-themed images. These have been featured in all forms of multi-media and publishing.
On his official website he explains how his photographs create a symbiosis between fantasy, reality, and madness With great ingenuity he lures the spectator to places that could have easily come from nightmares or fairytales. “It is an act of constant balance between irony and morbidity. Through this unique style he creates seductive and beautiful work and their powerful message is felt deep in the gut.”
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Ultimately, what these photographers are doing is unveiling their interpretation of what is the grotesque. This broad term goes beyond what the images look like or represent, it is what they do, how they work, and the relationship that exists between the image and the beholder. The grotesque breaks the boundaries and these photographer with a hammer have pounded these barriers into dust. The grotesque is in constant flux and it challenges the relationship between people and their surroundings. One thing is clear, these photographers will pop your comfort bubble.
