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Remarkably enough, that is not the way in which his interpreters want to understand Witkin's subject matter. Some, like Germano Celant and Christian Palmer, prefer to praise his laudable endeavour to lift the reigning taboo on deformation, illness, suffering and death: 'The freak or the handicapped person must not be ostracised'.And in the same vein, Witkin is talking about 'the love and courage it takes to find wonder and beauty in people who are considered by society to be damaged, unclean, dysfunctional or wretched. My art is the way I perceive and define life. It is sacred work, since what I make are my prayers.** To stress the respectability of his proceeding, he denies any link to SM, and emphasises that he is interested in 'self-awareness': 'I don't photograph anyone who likes pain, only people who use it for their self-awareness. I have been approached by sadists who wanted me to photograph people they torture, but I refused, because I don't like their purpose' * And - apparently, there is something to hidehere - Witkin has still another justification in petto: he describes himself as "loving the unloved, the damaged, the outcasts," (interview in Vanity Fair). Keith Seward goes even so far as to compare Witkin with Saint Francis ' who drank the pus of lepers in order to overcome his repulsion of them'.***. Or: how, in the end, sadomasochistic pleasure is turned into its very opposite: 'I try to imbue compassion into my images'* No sadism, hence, but love...
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