Diane Arbus

The story of Diane Arbus includes a great artistry, a tragic end and great posthumous success. Arbus is one of the pioneers of the American black and white photographic tradition. She developed its form and aesthetic towards a more personal and artistic expression. Her images have a clear personal language and demonstrate the potential and power of photography.
Diane Arbus mainly photographed people she discovered on her walks in New York City. She sought her subjects among those living on the edge of social acceptance, prostitutes, transvestites, refugees, eccentrics, but also took pictures of children, twins and ordinary middle and working class people in unconventional poses. The most famous images are from the 1950s and 60s.
Arbus had the ability to get her models to open up to the camera, without sentimentalizing or ignoring their flaws, she liked and admired them in an honest way. Arbus sought out people who interested her, building trust and allowing her to take staged portraits that are very personal and powerful in their expression. Her working method was similar to that of her teacher, Lisette Model, and our Swedish master Christer Strömholm. For them, photography was not a profession but a way of life.
Diane Arbus gets close to her subjects, both literally and emotionally, which is why her portraits are so powerful. What shocks is the intimacy. She has said that "if I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself". She instinctively found the right perspective to photograph from.
Diane married the future actor Allan Arbus at the age of 18. They worked in the 1940s and 50s as a successful photography team in the fashion and advertising world before divorcing in 1959. Together they had two daughters, Doon and Amy. At the same time, Diane Arbus continued with her own photography. It was after meeting Lisette Model in 1956 and taking a course with her that Diane Arbus developed her own personal and artistic style.
She was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1963 and 1966 for her non-commercial images and the same museum organized her first museum exhibition in 1967.
In July 1971, at the age of 48, Diane Arbus committed suicide. The following year, MoMa in New York held a retrospective exhibition of her work. In the same year, 1972, Diane Arbus was the first American photographer ever to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. Diane Arbus worked closely with her copyist, Neil Selkirk. He is the only person allowed to develop her images. All images developed and sold after Diane Arbus' death are signed by her daughter Doon Arbus and printed by Selkirk.
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know".
Quote Diane Arbus