John Waters

John Waters (born in 1946), who William Burroughs once called “Pope of Trash,” made a name for himself as the director of provocative films. His subjects, like sex, religion, and social exclusion, provoked the limits of good taste according to some. His early films Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living are also known as the Trash Trilogy. Waters has also worked as a photographer since the 1990s. A large part of his works consists of photographed images, in part reworked with combined with other images and his favorite film sequences. Waters’ relationship to photography, like his relationship to mainstream film, is mainly characterized by his outsider position and his typically odd but incisive perspective. He is an insolent intruder, one who by peeling away an intermediate realm between film and photography has discovered a new method of expression for himself. Without following the rules and without taking account of loyalties or target groups, he takes whatever he requires from the historic arsenals of film and photographic techniques.

John Water’s works have been shown at Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest (2007), Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (2007) Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (2005) or ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2004).