Controversial photographer Joel-Peter Witkin to lecture at

The work of renowned photographer Joel-Peter Witkin is often considered controversial for its explicit depiction of violence, but the artist said he is only portraying an inevitable part of life.

Witkin, who will lecture Jan. 30 at the Center for Creative Photography, said that as a photographer his duty is to portray modern life as it really is - violent and fleeting.

"Violence resonates the world we live in," Witkin said. He likened the world to "a snowball full of glass," saying it is not the snowball that is dangerous, but the glass inside of it.