Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus was an American photographer and writer who was well known for her square black and white photographs. She usually photographed the 'not so normal' kind of people such as dwarfs, giants, trans gender people. Because of this, Arbus was afraid she'd be known simply as 'the photographer of freaks'. Unfortunately, this is exactly the phrase often used to describe her.

Diane Arbus

 She was born March 14, 1923 in New York City as Diane Nemerov. She was the child of a Jewish couple that owned Russek's, a famous Fifth Avenue department store. In 1941, at the age of 18, she married her childhood sweetheart Allan Arbus. They were both interested in photography and in the early 1940's her father hired them to take photographs for the store's advertisements. Allan Arbus was a photographer in the US Army Signal Corps during WWII. After the war, Diane and Allan started a commercial photography business called 'Diane & Allan Arbus' with Diane as art director and Allan as the photographer.

Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967

In 1956, Diane quit the business and started her studies with Lisette Model. This led to Arbus's well known methods and style. Diane and Allan separated in 1958. She began taking photographs for well known magazines such as Esquire and The Sunday Times Magazine in 1959. Around 1962, Arbus switched from a 35mm Nikon camera which produced grainy rectangular images to a twin-lens reflex Rolleiflex camera which produced more detailed square images. In 1964 she added a twin-lens reflex Mamiya camera with flash to use in addition to the Rolleiflex. One of her methods was to establish a very strong relationship with her subjects and re-photographing some of them over many years.

During the 1960, Diane taught photography at several places, including the Parsons School of Design and the Cooper Union in New York City.

Eddie Carmel, Jewish Giant, taken at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, New York, 1970

The first major exhibition of her photographs took place at the Museum of Modern Art in a 1967 show called 'New Documents'. The exhibition was curated by John Szarkowski, who hired Arbus in 1970 to research an exhibition on photojournalism called 'From the Picture Press'.

During her life Arbus experienced many depressive episodes, similar to those of her mother. These episodes may have been made worse by the symptoms of hepatitis. On July 26, 1971, while living at  Westbeth Artists Community in New York City, Arbus took her own life by ingesting barbiturates and slashing her wrists with a razor. Marvin Israel found her body in the bathtub two days later. She was 48 years old.

Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City, 1962

Arbus's style isn't one I am very fond of. The subjects and the style of photographing makes for a 'freak show' style image. They give me an eerie feeling. In certain images, you get the sense that  Arbus is trying to portray her depressive episodes.



Image Sources:
http://ravesandrantsofahomeschoolmom.blogspot.co.uk/2009_03_01_archive.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Arbus