Deformity

Joel Peter Witkin

Diane Arbus

Laura Ferguson

Questions:

1. Is photography the best medium to express the "grotesque" as author Rachel Adams sad at the end of the chapter? What do you think about the "carte de visite" phenomenon and of the "freak" as celebrity?

2. Do you think the "freak" photography made people more comfortable with human deformities or did it objectify them as others? What was the impace of medical photography on "freak"photogaphy?

3. How has science changed opeple's view of people with deformities and subsequently how has it affected art?

4. Do you think Yayoi-Kusama's pieces are representative of "deformity" in art?

5. Is John Currin's work pastiche or parody?