The work of Nan Goldin, Larry Clark, Helmut Newton, Diane Arbus and more
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BY: PROVOKR Staff
The art of creating a provocative photograph involves taking risks, pushing boundaries and using techniques that challenge the status quo. The photographs collected here—from such greats as Helmut Newton, Nan Goldin and Larry Clark—mark pivotal moments in the art form, demonstrating how each of these masters put their own creative spin on the medium. Here’s the backstory on how these photographers made history.
The Berlin-born fashion photographer started developing a reputation in the 1950s for his avant-garde editorial work. He didn’t just shoot fashion spreads, he shot erotic, often-fetishistic, tableaux. This photograph—taken for a New York hair salon—captures Newton’s unique ability to add a sensual, artistic twist to even the most commercial endeavor. “I like the idea of trespassing,” Newton said. “It’s quite true that what I am aiming at, even when I take portraits, is to get a scandalous picture.” Patti Hansen and Winnie Holman for Xavier Coiffures, 1976, by Helmut Newton
German photographer Juergen Teller has been credited with changing the face of fashion photography—moving away from the glossy, glamour shots of the 1980s to a more hard-edged authentic realism, mixed with a splash of drama. Juergen Teller, 2011, for 032c magazine
“I don’t try to be controversial, I just try to be honest and tell the truth about life,” photographer/film director Larry Clark has said. With his seminal 1971 photo book Tulsa, Clark made waves by showing the far less wholesome side to the Oklahoma city. His black and white photos captured youngsters having sex, taking drugs, and casually playing with guns. Tulsa, 1971, by Larry Clark
Part of New York City’s downtown arts scene, Peter Hujar was known for capturing the most intimate of portraits. In this triptych titled “Orgasmic Man,” Hujar shoots his model in the midst of ejaculating, but focuses the lens on the emotional rather than the sexual. As Stephen Koch, the manager of Hujar’s archive has said, “[Peter] wanted his camera to see the otherwise unseen bond between the male body and the male soul. And as with all his work, it had to be beautiful—beautiful enough to change the history of art.” Orgasmic Man, 1969, by Peter Hujar“Real memory, which these pictures trigger, is an invocation of the color, smell, sound, and physical presence, the density and flavor of life,” writes Nan Goldin in her 1986 book The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. In that compendium of her work (which includes this photograph), Goldin captures a cultural underclass—including pimps, transvestites, battered women and AIDS sufferers—but no matter her subject, all of her snap-shot-style photos have the same hallmark: a pioneering sense of gritty eroticism and intimacy, emotional intensity and voyeuristic appeal. Greer and Robert on the bed, NYC, 1982, by Nan Goldin
Best known for his work as a crime-scene photographer, Weegee also brought his naturalistic approach to shooting 1940s moviegoers, adding a new, slightly darker edge to a typically sweet slice of Americana. Inside a movie theater, circa 1943, by Weegee
Renowned for his sexualized portraiture, Terry Richardson also made his mark by getting artists to pose in ways that challenge their established public images. In this photo, Richardson shot actor Jared Leto in drag. Jared Leto for Candy Magazine, 2013, by Terry Richardson
Diane Arbus charted a new path by photographing people who lived on society’s margins—in nudist colonies, at burlesque clubs, in mental institutions and circus freak shows—and in the process she provoked people into expanding their world views. “I tend to think of the act of photographing, generally speaking, as an adventure,” said Arbus. “My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.” Carol Doda San Francisco, 1968, by Diane Arbus
Pop art king Andy Warhol was decades ahead of the selfie-taking phenomenon. The artist who loved the instantaneous gratification of taking Polaroids, showed the world how quickly art could be created with ingenious self-portraits like this one. Self-Portrait in Drag, 1981, by Andy Warhol
One of the key figures of the Dada and Surrealist movements, Man Ray loved to experiment with photography, playing with light, exposure, even forgoing the use of a camera at all (he created “photograms” by placing objects on photographic paper and then exposing them to light). “There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love,” he said. “There are simply different ways of doing it.” Marquise Casati, 1922, by Man Ray
