Joel-Peter & Jerome Witkin
Witkin & Witkin 

  • Mexico
  • en
  • en
  • 97'
Joel-Peter & Jerome Witkin | Witkin & Witkin
Trailer Try 7 days free

Synopsis

As children, Jerome and Joel-Peter Witkin were rarely seen as individuals. “To society, we were The Twins. Yet we are two distinct entities.” Today, they have become strangers to one another. Their paths diverged during adolescence, when Jerome turned to painting and Joel-Peter chose photography. One became a photographer whose images seem to emerge from a surrealist painting. The other became a painter whose canvases reflect the world through the lens of realism.

Two artistic practices that, despite the distance between them, remain in striking dialogue. In Witkin & Witkin, Trisha Ziff explores the parallels between these two trajectories while tracing the gradual unraveling of a family bond. Through interviews with the brothers and the women who have shared their lives, a sensitive portrait emerges of a relationship shaped by love, rivalry, and distance. Ziff brings the brothers together not only on screen, but also through an exhibition, the first to present their work side by side. An opportunity, perhaps, to finally look at one another.

What you will find in this film

Twinhood and the construction of two distinct identities • Parallel artistic trajectories • The surrealism of a photographer and the realism of a painter • Art as a means of confronting violence in the world • The narrative power of images • Strangeness as a creative force

Keywords

Masters of Photography Portrait & Aesthetics Showcasing Photography Experimental & Alternative Photography
I looked out that window and as far as I could see into infinity, the world was there, my world was there. That was one of the first indications of what I wanted to do in life. I wanted to enter that far looking world and take pictures there.
He’s an educator. I’m a visual adventurer.
What drives me is the desire to fulfil an idea with a purpose. Because I think so much art today has no purpose. It’s a façade; it has no depth. My images are about stories.
Suddenly art is no longer an exercise in how good I am, it’s maybe how bad the world is.

Documentaries about photography, and about the people who make it. 
You can try it free for 7 days.

What you’ll find

Portraits of photographers, names everyone knows and others you’ll discover here. Films about street photography, war, fashion or portraiture, about printing and historical processes. About the trades of photography too. And then suggestions for going further, with Focuses, articles, interviews, bibliographies.

A small independent team

Documentaries about photography were rarely shown on television, and hardly at all on streaming platforms. We created The Darkroom Rumour to give them a place of their own. We are a small team, and we choose every film ourselves, with no school to defend.

Inspire your photography

In these films, you see photographers at work, in the field as well as in the darkroom. If you take pictures, you’ll often come away with an idea to try. If you simply like looking at images, you may start to see them differently.

How it works 

You can watch the films online, anywhere in the world, on a computer, tablet or phone, and on TV by mirroring your phone’s or computer’s screen. Every film is available in French and English, with no ads. New releases come out on Saturday or Sunday. The trial lasts 7 days, and if you stop before day 8, you pay nothing.

The Darkroom Rumour on a TV, a computer, a tablet and a phone
Start your free trial

The authors/artists

Jerome Witkin
Jerome Witkin
Painter
Joel-Peter Witkin
Joel-Peter Witkin
Photographer
Trisha Ziff
Trisha Ziff
Film director

Further exploration

Selected bibliography

• Jack Rutberg (ed.), Jerome Witkin & Joel-Peter Witkin: Twin Visions, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, 2015. Publisher · Libraries

• Sherry Chayat, Life Lessons: The Art of Jerome Witkin, Syracuse University Press, 2006. Libraries

• Edward A. Aiken, Donald Kuspit, Peter Selz and Sherry Chayat, Drawn to Paint: The Art of Jerome Witkin, Syracuse University Art Galleries, 2011.

• Joel-Peter Witkin, Gods of Earth and Heaven, Twelvetrees Press, 1989. Libraries

• Germano Celant, Witkin, Scalo / D.A.P., 1995. Libraries

Online

• The AFI DOCS Interview: Witkin + Witkin Director Trisha Ziff, American Film Institute.

• Oral history interview with Joel-Peter Witkin, Paul Karlstrom, interview, Archives of American Art, 1999-2001.

• Joel-Peter Witkin interviewed by Brainard Carey, Bruce Silverstein Gallery.

• Jerome Witkin: Painting History, Memory and Fantasy, John Seed, blog, 2011.

• Jerome Witkin, Painting Perceptions.