This book gives readers a unique view into the work and mind of Joel-Peter Witkin. Not only does it provide us with a good sampling of his own thought-provoking imagery, but also with visual references of the works that have influenced his photographs. In addition, Witkin gives us, in his own words, written insight, a personal interpretation of some of the images he has created. It is put together nicely with the text preceeding the photographs so that the photos occupy seperate pages. In this way the text enhances the viewing rather than interrupts it.
Highly recommended.

A book that will satisfy both the avid fans of Joel Peter Witkin's art and newcomers to this modern genius' output. We earn more about influence and process than we ever thought we would know. This beautifully presented volume is both an homage to Witkin's mentors and a celebration of his gifts as Master of the Bizarre. A fine addition to the volumes on Witkin and to the library of Fine Art Photography in general.

This book offers a key to Joel-Peter Witkin's art missing from previously publications featuring his work. His choice of 'ancestors' for his own work is enlightening, fascinating, stimulating and often startling. Anyone interested in photographic history and photographic purposes can learn from this book. An additional bonus is that it is beautifully designed and produced.

If one were to draw an imaginary line through the last two hundred years, starting with Goya and the Disasters of War, perhaps pausing briefly with Daumier and then moving resolutely to the trenches of the first world war, some of the lithographs of George Bellows, Otto Dix and Grosz. And if that imaginary line were to pick up the expressionist thread again in Mexico, most particularly with Orozco and Jose Luis Cuevas then I think that Witkin, rather than a shocking purveyor of disturbing images can be seen as the latest -and one of the finest- inheritors of a very solid and well-grounded strand in the history of Western Art.

Sometimes he is even very funny, as when, very conscious of academic art, he mimics Velasquez and Ingres, but then Goya could be very funny, too. Usually however Witkin is about as funny as Goya's impalements or as the trench war lithographs of Otto Dix.

Definitely not a book for the "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything crowd" If you like your expressionism with a bite, this is great stuff. If you prefer tame, decorative expressionism there's always Maurice Sendak.

o pushing the role of the photographer as one who photographs the poor, the odd, the strange, the perverse, the sexual underworld in the tradition of Weegee, Arbus, etc. o pushing the adaptation of famous works of art in the past into modern pieces. o and if you can't stomach what you find, you should at least be able to appreciate the quality of the photo-manipulation. o one image from this book seems to have been used in the movie Jacob's Ladder.

Joel Peter Witkin's images are what nightmares are made of...a cast of freaks, standing up...looking through you. We are here, don't pity or humiliate us...we are not nightmares...we are all creatures of heaven and earth

Although I had seen some of Witkin's photos on the internet before purchasing this book, I was still shocked when I looked at them again in this beautiful book. Witkin's works are powerful because nobody else had done a similar thing before. His photos show deformed human beings, corpses, body parts and dead animals, in a harmony way. That's where the shock comes from: how can such objects be composed to a beautiful image? The discomfort is created when your eyes are telling your brain Witkin's photos are beautiful while your brain is telling you his photos are horrible! I highly recommand this book to the people who are willing to open their minds and admire the works by this mad genius!

Aptly named, THE BONE HOUSE is a collection of Witkin's images covering the period from 1950 to 1998. Witkin himself made the selection of his images. This is the first time I have seen some of these photographs, but many others are drawn from Witkin's better known images. The collection is remarkable.

Witkin is not an easy photographer/artist to get next to. He uses death, morbidity, deformity and sexual diversity to continually push at aesthetic boundaries. His work changes the viewer in it's search for beauty among the artifacts of the grotesque.

Yet it is not Witkin's intent to shock. Few viewers realize the amount of planning and control that goes into these images. Witken's own writings often depict himself as an aesthetic primitive or pagan, but this is far from the truth. This volume, and the Celant collaboration with Witkin contain preliminary sketches that are worth the price of admission. The artist's unearthly compositions, often composed with human and animal fragments are often drawn from images that come to us from the 16th and 17th century.

The book itself is beautifully bound and printed. Twin Palms has done their best to capture the quality of the Witkin prints. Unfortunately, this is a hopeless task. He tears, scratches, paints and waxes a print until it is far more than a simple photographic print. But the reproduction in the book is as good as I've seen.

I'm one of the fortunate few where was able to by the edition with the signed etching at it's earlier, pre-issue price. Now that edition is quite dear. If you can afford it, the etching is delightful, and well worth the expense. If not, there is also a less expensive, unsigned version, now in it's second printing, for considerably less.

This is unnerving, thoughtful photography. Consider this:

"I have consecrated my life to changing matter into spirit in the hope of someday seeing it all. Seeing its total form, while wearing the mask, from the distance of death. And there, in the eternal destiny, to seek the face I had before the world was made." (Joel-Peter Witkin)

This book is fantastic as far as photo books go. There is a important quality attached to having good reproductions in a printed book. The Bone House has some of the best reproductions of the original prints availiable, aside from appropriate information about the author and artist himself.

There is no cheaper way to become aquainted with the work of master photographer and artisan, Joel-Peter Whitkin. His work is renowned world wide and skillfuly reproduced in this book. My only complaint on this selection is that the book is small and this makes it difficult to view some of the images.

I have a couple of these volumes and they are wonderful. The reproduction quality is very good and the comments on each image are informative, interesting, and concise.

Phaidon has a great habit of producing well produced books on the visual arts and their photography volumes are no exception. It would be difficult to find a better value.

This is a book about a sad man who choses to photograph dead babies and corpses.

I appreciate Joel Peter Witkin's photos for a few years, before I can actually own this book finally. This book makes my experience complete.

A comprehensive collection of Joel-Peter Witkin's work, which belongs to the dark side of human. The careful composition of human body, objects and background, sometimes with cross-reference to classical paintings, invites a surreal, poetic, and miserable feeling.

If you only think that his photos are terrible, you need more time and more patience to read his images, through understanding. Extract from what Witkin said - 'When people see my work, there is no 'grey area' of response. What they experience is either love or hate.'

For all photography books I have ever read, this one is the most visual impacting ! Joel Peter Witkin's work is inspiring, original, and creative.

Very highly recommended, if you want to look into our human side.

Be forewarned: Witkin's photographic art is wholly unique and strange and bizarre and macabre.....and wondrous. How often do we really have the courage to face our nightmare demons, real or imagined? Here is an artist who has devoted his life to addressing the dark side of our minds. Yes, these are photographs of "freaks" manipulated to states beyond which even they can go. Some people are put off by these images, finding them cruel and disgusting. But why do these same people pack the theatres and movie houses that continue to grind out rehashed Dracula, Frankenstein, Phantoms of the Opera, and other creatures from the black lagoon of invention? Perhaps the fact that these are photographs and not drawings or paintings makes them fall into the realm of possible rather than make-believe. But here they are, like a sideshow, with incredible presence, lighting, theatrics, and pain. For the unafraid, Witkin's photographs are beautiful. And so is this volume!

If you are a serious collector of early photos,this is not the book for you.Besides the terrible organization of photo subject and type reference,some of wich have no reference at all,some of the photos would probably be already quite familliar to you,and are all done over in this sepia like tone instead of their true colors.As well,some of them are not quite so early.The text is taken from books of other people who have done great works on crime photogrphy,(Eugenia Parry),and so are the photos.if you want artsy,you might appreciate it.If you want a serious book on early photos of crime or the like,don't waste your money

While the photographs here were shocking, they were also exploitative. Just because they are old does not lessen the impact of photos of murdered children and freaks of nature. I am not sure what this book wanted to do, but it did not do it well. It is like reading a book version of the trashy Faces of Death video series.

Joel Peter Witkin is long established as a master of the visually bizarre, creating studio photographs that push the envelope of believability to the precipice and then encourage the viewer to accompany the descent. They are manufactured by the artist. But here Witkin has gathered bits of real life that far exceed the contrivances of his own photography. Distorted and leaning toward nauseating as some of these real life photographs from history may be, they are all the more strange because they are Documentation instead of Creation. And who better to compile this odyssey into the dark realm but the man who spends his creative energies devising fabricated scenarios that parallel these photographs? A fascinating survey of just how untameable is this planet we call home........