Posts tagged Arbus

DIANE ARBUS (1923-1971) - Santas at the Santa Claus School. Albion, N.Y. 1964, Gelatin silver print, printed later by Neil Selkirk, stamped ‘A Diane Arbus photograph’, signed, titled, dated, numbered ‘16/75’ by Doon Arbus, Administrator, in ink and Estate copyright credit reproduction limitation stamps (on the verso). 14 3/8 x 14½in. (36.4 x 36.7cm.)

DIANE ARBUS (1923-1971) - Santas at the Santa Claus School. Albion, N.Y. 1964, Gelatin silver print, printed later by Neil Selkirk, stamped ‘A Diane Arbus photograph’, signed, titled, dated, numbered ‘16/75’ by Doon Arbus, Administrator, in ink and Estate copyright credit reproduction limitation stamps (on the verso). 14 3/8 x 14½in. (36.4 x 36.7cm.)

Diane Arbus Xmas Tree In a Living Room in Levittown, L.I., 1963, from a limited edition portfolio, A Box of Ten Photographs.

Diane Arbus Xmas Tree In a Living Room in Levittown, L.I., 1963, from a limited edition portfolio, A Box of Ten Photographs.

The Predatory Lens, Diane Arbus: Humanist or Voyeur?

Diane Arbus killed herself, aged 48, on 26 July 1971. On the 40th anniversary of her death, it’s worth reconsidering her artistic legacy. Her work remains problematic for many viewers because she transgressed the traditional boundaries of portraiture, making pictures of circus and sideshow “freaks”, many of whom she formed lasting friendships with.

If Arbus undoubtedly felt at home among the outsiders she photographed, she also experienced a frisson of guilty pleasure when photographing them. ‘There’s some thrill in going to a sideshow,’ she once confessed of her nocturnal visits to the circus tents of Coney Island, where performers were still earning a living in the 1960s. ‘I felt a mixture of shame and awe.’”