In case you didn't know who Joel-Peter Witkin was, he's one of my favorite artists. He photographs portraits he sets up himself using morbid objects, deformed models and often even corpses. I've always been fascinated by the idea of making the unusual and what society would normaly find as ugly or disgusting into something beautiful. I especially love his images of people with certain deformations anomalies, the otherwise recognized as circus freaks. His work to me is stunning, with one image he'll smote you with shock and a new found appreciation for the beauty hidden in the unconventional. 
