Diane Arbus

November 22, 2023

Diane Arbus was an American photographer born on March 14, 1923, she lived and shot in New York City. Diane's first introductory to photography was from her husband Allan Arbus, though this was her first look at photography, Diane was drawing and painting odd things since she was younger. Diane and Allen worked together on photography, mostly photographing fashion. After some time of working together, Diane eventually decided to do her own photography. In partnership with everything she had learned from her husband and other sources she eventually did a photography course with Berenice Abbot where she learned more about photography. Diane photographed what I like to think of as "The Wallflowers of Society". Diane photographed people with disabilities, people with dwarfism, carnival performers, cross dressers, sex workers, twins, couples, as well as more unusual subjects. That was Diane's thing as well as her "Claim to Fame". Photographing unusual, uncomfortable, and ultimately uncommon individuals and situations.

Diane was known to go to great lengths to capture an image, she was able to shoot the beauty and diversity of New York City. While this was well admired it also caused people to have a wide variety of opinions on Diane and her photography. Some people viewed her work with empathy and enjoyment while others felt disgusted and shocked by it. One of my favorite things about Diane Arbus was her desire to experience diversity and different people and situations. I believe one of the reasons people didn't like Diane's photography was because she shed light on people and things that some people simply didn't want to see. Two of my favorite quotes from Diane are "I really believe their things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them", as well "We've all got an identity. You can't avoid it. Its what's left when you take everything else away". Diane's most popular photograph was a photo titled "A Child with a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park" 1962, another one of her most popular photos was "Identical Twins" 1966. Diane used flash lighting in photography which gave her images a specific and Dreamlike look. Around 1960 Diane's work was well known, some of her images were able to have a place at The Museum for Modern Art in New York City. Diane also had some of her images included in Esquire Magazine in July 1960. Diane sadly committed suicide on July 26, 1971, her beautiful and eerie images will always be remembered. My favorite photograph that Diane shot was her photo of a "Tattooed Man at a Carnival" Maryland 1970.