Diane Arbus (1923 -1971)
Diane Arbus is a photographer who’s work cannot fail to grab the attention of the viewer, perhaps because of the simple reason she photographed what she called “freaks.”
Born into a wealthy New York Jewish family, Arbus grew up through the Great Depression. She married her childhood sweetheart 18 in 1941 and developed her love of photography together with her husband, with whom she worked on several commercial projects; although she quit commercial work in 1956 to develop her personal style and projects. She split from her husband in 1959.
She developed a style that tried to connect with her subjects, and she had a tendency to re-photograph them over many years. She committed suicide in 1971.
Her body of work is quite profound; her subjects burn into your mind as soon as you see them, probably never to leave. I doubt few photographers in the world today can hear her name now without seeing the image of the boy hold a hand grenade. Her work is also divisive; it troubles as many as it pleases due to its preserved voyeuristic tenancies.
Arbus, herself, admitted that she was drawn to freaks; although she is relatively complementary about this. She is quoted as saying:
“Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first things I photographed, and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me. I just used to adore them. I still adore some of them; I don’t quite mean they’re my best friends, but they made me feel a mixture of shame and awe.
There’s a quality of legend about freaks. Like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle. 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.”
However, the question we must ask is why did she feel this way about them?
Was it because as Susan Sontag suggests in On Photography, that she viewed them from a position of distance and privilege – of course, we can never know for sure, but I doubt (or hope?) that this was not the case.
Sontag is very scathing of Arbus work in On Photography; even going so far as to suggest her suicide validated the work as not being voyeuristic and cold, but sincere and compassionate. While I’m not necessarily a great fan of Arbus, this does see a very harsh comment.
I find Arbus work; the full frontal, stiff almost Victoria style poses a little repetitive. Not that other photographers are not repetitive in their work, and I rarely see or find any warmth
e.g.
A Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, New York City (1962) truly terrifies me, I make me feel very uncomfortable and is burned in my memory, while I know if it just a photograph of an average kid playing at war movies – the tone does not sit well.
Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, (1967). Reminds me of Kubrick movie “The Shinning” – I know many have said this before people, and I often wonder if it was the inspiration for that scene. But, I digress it feels very Victorian in its outlook and style and a bit cookie cutter.
And simply, I feel both these images were designed to shock me.
Some shots are different, Jewish Giant. Taken at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, New York, (1970) for example, this feels gentler. The Large man too big for his towering over his parents but you can instantly see his gentleness.
Her images earn a place in photographic history, not because she is the best know the female photographer of her generation because they are great images not just to my taste. They are exploitative, but as I have mentioned in a previous post, I believe we are all exploitative within our pictures of people, how much of a code of ethics we tell ourselves we have.
Arbus used her camera as a license to enter and document other people lives, the modern day Arbus I think is Bruce Gilden – but in a different way. He ambushes people to capture their life; he doesn’t build the report and allow them to drop the guard as Arbus did; he ensures the guard is down through surprise.
Even though they are similar in a tone, I would much rather look at Gilden’s work on my wall that Arbus.
Bibliography
WIKIPEDIA. Diane Arbus. [online]. [Accessed 8 Nov 2015]. Available from World Wide Web: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Arbus>
O’HAGEN, Sean. Diane Arbus: humanist or voyeur? [online]. [Accessed 08 Nov 2015]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jul/26/diane-arbus-photography-sideshow>
KIM, Eric. Eric Kim Photography. [online]. [Accessed 08 Nov 2015]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/10/15/11-lessons-diane-arbus-can-teach-you-about-street-photography/>
SONTAG, Susan. 2008. On Photography. Penguin Modern Classics.