Filmed over several years, writer and director Trisha Ziff captures the art and lives of Jerome and Joel-Peter Witkin, identical twins who become professional artists in their respective fields. The twins are now in their seventies. Born into a hardworking family in Brooklyn, young Jerry, Joey, and sister Sara Jane live with their parents and grandmother until the father walks out. The boys’ mother sometimes can’t distinguish between the two boys, but as Jerry confides, the boys looked different and considered themselves separate individuals.
As the twins get older, they develop different interests and grow apart; Jerome pursues painting and Joel becomes interested in cameras. After visiting Coney Island and taking pictures of individuals in the freak show, Joel decides his medium will be photography. Serious and intelligent, Jerome decides on his career path even before Joel does. Asking his mother how he can learn to paint, Jerome is then accepted into The High School of Music and Art at age 14. Jerome exhibits his art as a young adult and later goes to Berlin for additional study. While riding the subway between East and West Berlin, he is distressed by seeing a girl trying to escape the East and pulled off the train to her death by a woman in uniform; many of his paintings reflect a concern for the human condition and suffering. Living in Syracuse, Jerome is married to Lisa who manages the business area of his figurative art. Jerome also teaches drawing and painting and viewers watch him instructing students how to draw a nude older man.
Eager to leave home and after seeing newspaper images of war-torn areas, Joel joins the Army and is assigned to intelligence; with a top-secret clearance, he uses a drone with cameras containing infrared film to take pictures. He processes the pictures using a mobile lab and learns more types of photography. Seeing the horrors of war, Joel uses this experience, his memories of individuals who are not normal, and new thoughts in developing his art. Once Joel gets an idea, he sets up the scene using people and props. Joel uses deformed and grotesque figures, prosthetics, and other shocking depictions of the human condition to arrange images for his photos. For Joel, it is important his images communicate a story.
In Mexico, both Jerome and Joel attend a dual international exhibit of their works, “Witkin and Witkin”. While Jerome seems a little hurt by Joel’s lack of personal interest in him throughout his life, Joel seems to feel it is okay the twins are not close and that they lead separate and distant lives. As the film contains graphic and sometimes disturbing subject matter, it may not be appropriate for all audiences; however, showing how artists create their art makes the film a useful addition to art and photography collections. Strong optional. Aud: C.