Diane Arbus

File:DianeArbusAperture.jpg

Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967, on the cover of Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph.

Diane Arbus (March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer, noted for her portraits of people on the fringes of society. For her spare, realistic and sometimes haunting subject matter she is considered a key figure in contemporary documentary photography. Although born into privileged circumstances she broke with societal constraints in order to pursue her passion for photographing subjects that heretofore were deemed as "outcasts." Her pictures included those of the homeless, midgets, dwarfs and circus "freaks." For her honest portrayal of real people a New Yorker reviewer said of her work, she "sought out pain, ugliness, and disorder, and looked at it harder than probably any other photographer has done.

Family life and photography

Diane (pronounced "dee-ANN"), Nemerov was born in New York City into an upper class Jewish family. Her older brother, Howard Nemerov served as a United States Poet Laureate on two separate occasions. Her family owned Russeks Department Store on Fifth Avenue. She attended the The Fieldston School in the Bronx where she became interestd in myths, and ritual; ideas that later would inform her work. She also devoted time to art classes, studying painting, sketching, and clay modeling. One biographer has reported that Arbus and her friends liked to ride the subways and follow interesting or unusual passengers. She was also described as having said that her privileged upbringing made her "immune" from hardship and that this was painful for her.

At age 14 she met her future husband Allan Arbus who worked in her parents' department store. Despite their objections she married him soon after turning 18. When Allan started training as a photographer for the US Army, he taught Diane the basics. As a husband-wife team, the Arbuses became successful in the fashion world: Allan was the photographer, Diane was the stylist. They did fashion shoots for Bonwit Teller and Condé Nast Publications. As Diane began to take her own photographs, she took formal lessons with Lisette Model at The New School in New York. Edward Steichen's noted photo exhibit, The Family of Man, whose exhibit was held in 1955 at the Museum of Modern Art, included a photograph credited to the couple. Together the Arbuses had two daughters, photographer Amy Arbus and writer and art director Doon Arbus, but, by 1959, they had separated.

Career and later life

After separating from her husband, Arbus studied with Alexey Brodovitch and Richard Avedon. Beginning in 1960, Arbus worked extensively as a photojournalist, her photos appearing in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Harper's Bazaar and Sunday Times magazines, among others. Her first public work was an assignment by Esquire editor and art director Robert Benton. Published under the title, "The Vertical Journey: Six Movements of a Moment Within the Heart of the City," it consisted of six portraits of an assortment of New Yorkers. Arbus would go on to collaborate with Hayes and Benton (and Benton's successors) for 31 photographs in 18 articles.

Arbus' early work was created using 35mm cameras, but by the 1960s Arbus adopted the Rolleiflex medium format twin-lens reflex. This format provided a square aspect ratio, higher image resolution, and a waist-level viewfinder that allowed Arbus to connect with her subjects in ways that a standard eye-level viewfinder did not. Arbus also experimented with the use of flashes in daylight, allowing her to highlight and separate her subjects from the background.

In 1963, Arbus received a Guggenheim Fellowship grant, allowing her to focus on her art. Arbus received a second Guggenheim grant in 1966. The Museum of Modern Art, in 1967, staged Arbus' first museum show as the New Documents show which included the work of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander. Arbus also taught photography at Parsons The New School for Design in New York and Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.

In July 1971, Arbus committed suicide in Greenwich Village at the age of 48 by ingesting a large quantity of barbiturates and then cutting open her wrists.

Legacy

Aperture magazine was crucial in reviving Arbus' artistic reputation. MoMA curator John Szarkowski prepared to stage a retrospective in 1972, but the accompanying Diane Arbus catalogue proposal was turned down by all major publishing houses. Aperture's Michael E. Hoffman accepted the challenge, producing one of the most influential photography books. The Aperture monograph has since been reprinted 12 times, selling more than 100,000 copies. The MoMA retrospective traveled throughout North America attracting more than 7 million viewers. Also in 1972, Arbus became the first American photographer to be represented at the Venice Biennale. Arbus' photograph Identical Twins is tenth on the list of most expensive photographs having sold in 2004 for $478,400.

Arbus is noted by critics and art historians for her photographs depicting outsiders, such as tranvestites, dwarves, giants, prostitutes, and ordinary citizens in poses and settings conveying a disturbing uncanniness.

Some critics claim that Arbus' voyeuristic approach demeaned her subjects, based around a major London retrospective of Arbus's works. Admirers of Arbus's work, such as filmmaker Todd Solondz were also interviewed by the BBC and passionately defended her work.—> In an effort to dispel this image of only photographing freaks, Arbus undertook a study of conventional people, including Gloria Vanderbilt's infant son, future CNN anchorman Anderson Cooper, for Harper's Bazaar.

Famous photographs

• Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City (1962) — A scrawny boy, with the left strap of his jumper awkwardly hanging off his shoulder, tensely holds his long, thin arms by his side. Clenching a toy grenade in his right hand and holding his left hand in a claw-like gesture, his facial expression is maniacal. Arbus captured this photograph by having the boy stand while moving around him, claiming she was trying to find the right angle. The boy became impatient and told her to "Take the picture already!" His tired, frustrated expression conveys his weariness with the whole endeavor.

  This photo was also used, without permission, on the cover of Punk Band SNFU's first studio album; And No One Else Wanted to Play.

• Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967 (above) — Young twin sisters are seen standing side by side in corduroy dresses. One slightly smiles and the other slightly frowns. This photo is echoed in Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining, which features twins in an identical pose. In retrospect the twins' father says of his now grown daughters, "I mean it resembles them," Wade continues. "But we've always been baffled that she made them look ghostly. None of the other pictures we have of them looks anything like this." [1]

• Jewish Giant at Home with His Parents in The Bronx, NY, (1970) — Eddie Carmel, the "Jewish Giant," stands in his family's apartment with his much shorter mother and father.

Arbus quotes

• "Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats"

• "What I'm trying to describe is that it's impossible to get out of your skin into somebody else's.... That somebody else's tragedy is not the same as your own".

• "I never have taken a picture I've intended. They're always better or worse".

• "My favorite thing is to go where I've never been".

In popular culture

• Nicole Kidman stars as a highly fictionalized account of Arbus's life in the movie Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. This film was released November 10, 2006, with a DVD release date of May 8, 2007. It also stars Robert Downey Jr. and Ty Burrell and is directed by Steven Shainberg.

• In "Homer's Night Out, a season one episode of The Simpsons, Martin Prince likens a photo Bart Simpson took of his father Homer dancing with Princess Kashmir, to the work of Diane Arbus.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Washington Post (May 12, 2005): "Double Exposure: A Moment With Diane Arbus Created A Lasting Impression," by David Segal
• Washington Post/Camera Works (undated; circa 2003): "Diane Arbus: Revealed And Rediscovered," by Frank Van Riper
• The Social Affairs Unit (Dec. 16, 2005): "Art as Freak Show: Diane Arbus, Revelations at the V&A," by Prof. Christie Davies - Review of retrospective at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
• "Diane Arbus," Contemporary Authors Online, Gale 2007. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center, Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.
• "Diane Nemerov Arbus," Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center, Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.

External link

• "Home Page", An Unofficial Diane Arbus Website, Retrieved July 23, 2007.

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