DIANE ARBUS, 1923-1971

Intrepid and spontaneous, Diane Arbus created a unique body of work between the mid-1950s and her death in 1971.

Cover of diane arbus, An Aperture Monograph, 1997. Photo by M. Light.

Diane Arbus was obsessed by visions.  Her dream was to photograph everybody in the world, and by the end of the 1960s her brilliant, edgy pictures of peace marches and art openings, her portraits of Mae West, Ozzie and Harriet, Viva, Gloria Vanderbilt's baby--work she defined as "funk and news"--had established her as a pioneer of the new photojournalism.  Her personal projects were more ambiguous:  "people without their masks" discovered by her at Coney Island and at Hubert's Freak Museum on 42nd Street, at nudist colonies in New Jersey, at drag queen contests, at a home for retardates.  To Arbus, photography was an adventure and a photograph was "a secret about a secret; the more it tells you, the less you know."

Front Flap of Diane Arbus: A Biography, by Patricia Bosworth.  1984, Knopf

Some quotes from diane arbus, An Aperture Monograph, 1972:

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

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

 "For me the subject of the picture is always more important than the picture."

"I work from awkwardness. By that I mean I don't like to arrange things."

"The thing that's important to know is that you never know.  You're always sort of feeling your way."

There are several books and one video recording about Diane Arbus in the Fogelson Library Collection. Check call number TR 647 .A7 for her photography, and TR 140 .A73 for biography.  A few of these books are on display through March near the entrance of the library as a part of the Women's History Month display. 

For more information, try one of these web sites:  http://diane-arbus-photography.com/ and http://www.washingtonpost.com/ .

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