Witkin & Witkin

The Witkin twins describe each other beforeTrishaZiff’s camera. Born and raised in Brooklyn, they reminisce on a symbiotic childhood with their sister, mother and grandmother after their father left home. The twins, considered identical and continually confused with each other, felt like separate entities, and took different paths to claim their individuality and independence. Jerome began to paint in early youth, in a figurative style that refers to the greatmasters and abstract expressionism. Joel began a career in photography, maturing the unique personal style that made him world-famous. Through different means, the Witkins’ work is united by an obscure, sometimes morbid interest in death, physical deformity, war and disease. Their works were exhibited together for the first time at the Cuatro Caminos museum in Mexico City, in 2016. The Witkin&Witkins how gave the film its title. In intimate and reflective tones, the director collects the voices of the protagonists, their sister, their respective companions and some friends and collaborators. The artist brothers’ lives are unveiled in their humanity, artistic research, personal losses and traumas, which appear to run on different tracks,but are strikingly similar.