Semester B: Discourse Work
Leading up to her suicide in 1971, Diane Arbus was a key figure in photography. Her portraits of the unconventional made her work controversial not only then but even still today.
Arbus is mainly known for her very straight and direct style of photography. Her images showed the reality of society in a very blunt and honest way. She dedicated her work on documenting those on the edge of society, either it is transvestites or dwarfs, it would seem they were all willing to step in front of the camera for her, ready to show the world their face.
(Left:) King and Queen of a Senior Citizens Dance (Right:) Two ladies at the automat, N.Y.C.
While I was researching for this blog, I came across these two images that I hadn't seen before. I liked how they were similar, yet were completely different. The similarity was in the subject matter and composition, but what differs the two images from each other is their social class. Although they are separate images, I think as a pair they are interesting and reflect the time in which they were shot.
However, I am personally not a fan of Diane Arbus. Although I do appreciate her work and understand how important she is within the photographic world, I find her images within this series rather similar. To me, I find what makes her images so iconic is her subject matter which from what I understand she was not totally in control of. Although you could say she was, in a way of she chose them but not in how they were or their situation. I think she could be seen as exploiting those with abnormalities. It also means the main reason for the pictures success is down to the fact that the people within them were “controversial”. Yet this idea of photographing those considered not normal was not something new and neither was it the last time someone has done it. Yet I admire her for how she was able to photograph these people up close, I think for this reason only could I consider her work as something of importance to me personally, especially as it was not something usually done at the time.
Image Credits:
1. Arbus, D. (1970). King and Queen of a Senior Citizens Dance N.Y.C. [Online image]. Available at: http://www.culturevulture.net/ArtandArch/Arbus.htm (Accessed: 07 May 2008).
2. Arbus, D. (1966). Two ladies at the automat, N.Y.C. [Online image]. Available at: http://www.culturevulture.net/ArtandArch/Arbus.htm (Accessed: 07 May 2008).
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