"Photography for me is not looking, it's feeling. If you can't feel what you're looking at, then you're never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.

1
"Photography for me is not looking, it's feeling.
If you can't feel what you're looking at, then
you're never going to get others to feel anything
when they look at your pictures. ----Diane Arbus
MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY,
prepared to stage a retrospective on Arbus in
1972, producing an accompanying Diane Arbus
Revelations catalogue. The proposal was turned
down by all major publishing houses, due to the
contraversial nature of her work and death.
Aperatures Michael E. Hoffman accepted the
challenge. The show and catalogue were and are a
huge success.
2
Boy with Toy Hand Grenade, Central Park, 1962
Early work used 35mm camera. Documentary
style, similar to others of the period.
Personal encounter.
Diane Arbus is best known for her artwork
consisting mostly of New Yorkers. Portraits of
children,
3
Albino sword swallower at a carnival, MD. 1970
Diane Arbus is best known for her artwork
consisting mostly of New Yorkers. Portraits of
children, carnival performers,
4
A Young Brooklyn Family Going on a Sunday Outing,
N.Y.C., 1966
Representing what is considered familiar with the
unfamiliar
Diane Arbus is best known for her artwork
consisting mostly of New Yorkers. Portraits of
children, carnival performers, middle-class
families,
5
Diane Arbus is best known for her artwork
consisting mostly of New Yorkers. Portraits of
children, carnival performers, middle-class
families, couples, nudists,
and finding the exotic in the plain.
6
exploring the relationships between appearance
and identity
A young man in curlers at home on west 20th st.
NYC, 1966
Diane Arbus is best known for her artwork
consisting mostly of New Yorkers. Portraits of
children, carnival performers, couples,
middle-class families, nudists, transvestites,
7
By the 1960s she was using a Rolleiflex medium
format twin lens reflex. Providing for a square
aspect ratio, higher image resolution (her
initial prints in photography showed a
fascination of the grain) and she utilized a
waist level viewfinder to connect with her
subjects in an unconventional way. She
experimented with the use of flashes in daylight,
highlighting and separating subjects from
background. She was a passionate photographer
who would rampage the city despite being weighed
down by cameras.
42nd Street Movie Theatre Audience, N.Y.C., 1958
illusion and belief, theater and reality
Woman With a Veil on Fifth Avenue, N.Y.C. 1968
Diane Arbus is best known for her artwork
consisting mostly of New Yorkers. Portraits of
children, carnival performers, couples,
middle-class families, nudists, transvestites,
people on the street,
zealots, eccentrics, and celebrities.
8
Born Diane Nemerev To Gertrude and David
Nemerov. Father inherited Russeks, originally a
fur store. Wealty Jewish family. Nannies.
Education. Talented artist. Longed for
understanding.
Two ladies at the Automat, 1966
9
As a child she would stand on the ledge of their
eleven story apartment above Central Park, gazing
out at the trees and skyscrapers in the distance.
I wanted to see if I could do it. I didnt
inherit my kingdom for a long time.
Diane Arbus,five, and her beloved brother Howard,
eight.
I want to be a great, sad artist
10
people think our depravity is only temporary
Diane Arbus committed suicide July, 1971.
Photo taken by Eva Rubenstein, 1971. Diane had
given Eva the assignment to take a picture of
something or somebody youve never taken before
or are afraid or in awe of
11
For years, individuals with mental retardation
were set at the outskirts of society by being
placed in state hospitals, poorly maintained
residences or foster care homes, experimented on
and treated as less than human for differences
that were reflected in their social and cultural
habits.
Untitled, 1969-1971
You see someone on the street and essentially
what you notice about them is the flaw.
12
Their diverse perception of reality greatly
varied from individuals who claim independence in
some of the simplest freedoms as providing for
oneself.
Untitled, 1969-1971
13
Untitled, 1969-1971
While these differences set a disabled individual
apart from society, there are notable qualities
of innocence and unabashed-ness, a lack of
self-consciousness, an unfettered acceptance of
who they are. Certainly, it is all these
characteristics that attracted Diane Arbus.
14
Untitled, 1969-1971
"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. (Diane Arbus
A Biography, by Patricia Bosworth)
15
Outsider one who is not part of a particular
group.