Diane Arbus-Art Life & Lives

In this installment of Art Life & Lives, we’re going to be talking about the photographer, Diane Arbus (1923-1971.)

Diane is most known for her portraits of “side show freaks.” But she photographed a wide variety of subjects from nudist colonies, patients in mental asylums, eccentrics of all stripes, trans people, cross dressers, strippers, wealthy families, pseudo places, and more. 

She once said “a photograph is a secret about a secret,” and she meant that quite literally. She would trade secrets with her subjects and build deep relationships with them to see who they really were, and to capture a glimpse of that, rather than their surface presentation. Creating a psychological intensity that was uniquely hers.

She was always seeking to understand and get "closer to experience." To find what is interesting if not beautiful. What is universal even if misunderstood. And to show what is unsettling even if common place..

From a young age Diane sensed that she didn’t experience things the way other people did. She felt distressed and alienated throughout her life because of this. This struggle led to unique work that revolutionized photography as a fine art. But she struggled with intense episodes of depression, her physical health, her relationships and eventually took her own life.

She has a very interesting life story. She was an insanely creative person with a truly unique point of view.

I recomend checking out some of her work before watching this if you aren’t familiar. I’ve linked to some pieces below.

Source books

The book I read was Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer by Arthur Lubow 

I also got Diane Arbus: Revelations. This is a beautiful book of her photography. It contains a lot of her work. It's printed more or less the same size she would have printed her work. 

Some of Diane’s photography

• Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park 
• The Rosella Twins  
• Tattooed man at a carnival is a great picture  
• Albino Sword Swallower  
• A Jewish giant at home with his parents in the Bronx 
• A young man in curlers at home on West 20th Street 
• Patriotic Young Man with a Flag - an intense photo from a pro-war march in 1967. She tried to take photos of the the anti-war demonstrations too. Even though she was more aligned with that side politically, she got much more interesting photos and the pro-war march.
• Untitled 8  
• Untitled 49 
• Untitled 7 
• The King and Queen of a Senior Citizens Dance, N.Y.C. -I love this photo so much. Maybe my favorite of hers.

Further videos to check out about Diane Arbus

Documentary about her featuring her daughter Doon. This film was made in 1972, a year after Diane died. Doon may have been a producer on this film too, I'm not sure. 

Interview with with the author of the biography, Arthur Lubow

Other Photographers I’ve enjoyed since

Like I say in the video, I never really cared for fine art photography. The book really changed my mind about it. Two photographers in particular that I discovered through the book that I've been enjoying are:

• August Sander A German portrait photographer who influenced Diane
• Weegee (Arthur Fellig) A press photographer who took pictures of gruesome crime scenes, tabloid photos of celebrities, among other things.

(You'll have to scroll down to see their work on these pages)