Diane Arbus1923-1971

Biography

Themes

Style

Insights"In nearly every case, her subject would be framed by his most natural, obvious setting ... and posed facing straight-eyed and unblinking toward the center of her camera lens, always with the same curious expression, as though seeking from the beholder some special understanding." - Harold Hayes, one of her editors at Esquire

Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City (1962) Shot many angles with the boyThe boy was impatientHis expression shows his impatience and frustrationOther pictures show him happySlightly shocking nature boy holding a grenadeSold for $408,000 in 2005

Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967 One smiles, the other frownsLooks at identity and the differences between everyone in societySold in 2004 for $478,400

Sourceswww.artphotogallery.org/.../diane_arbus_03.html http://www.biography.com/articles/Diane-Arbus-9187461http://www.masters-of-fine-art-photography.com/02/artphotogallery/database/diane_arbus_27.jpghttp://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/arbus.htmlhttp://dreamdogsart.typepad.com/art/images/2007/09/26/diane_arbus.jpg

Bosworth, Patricia. 2005. Diane Arbus: A Biography. W.W. Norton, 2005.

Her husband; Allan Arbus taught her photography Started out in advertising and fashion photography, had pictures in VogueWorked as a team with her husbandThen wanted a solo career, studied with Lisette ModelWanted to further her artTook pictures of people in New York city as she was wanderingMid 1960s, she was a well established photographerHad shows in Museum of Modern art in new yorkShe became friends with many other famous photographers, such as Richard Avedon and Walker Evans. Her marriage ended in 1969She became depressedShe committed suicide in her New York apartment in 1971 by ingesting pills and slashing herself with a razor

Mentioned earlier, taking pictures of New York as she went aroundShe visited seedy hotels, public parks, morgues. These were seen to have a raw quality and several of them found their way in the July 1960 issue of Esquire magazine. This got her work circulatedThis helped her kick start her career First picture is Ozzie and Harriet Nelson on their Lawn, L.A., CA., 1971She became known for going to great lengths to get the shots she wanted. Second picture is Masked Woman in a Wheelchair, 1970Sometimes strange and obscure She would spend hours with her subjects, following them to their homes or offices, talking and listening to them, trying to soften them up to the point where they began to drop their public faadeWhen she met Lisette ModelLisette pushed her to further her thematic interest in unorthodoxyAnd also to master the conventional technical aspects of photography. Photo: Lady Bartender at Home with a Souvenir Dog, 1964The above picture is valued at around 20,000 dollarsShe is very original and influentialHer work, said earlier, is worth thousandsLooked a the boredom of surburbia and a break down of the public faceHer photos depended on your level of skepticism, She photographed what she did, she said, because that was what interested her, and because nobody else was.