Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus was an influential American photographer, renowned for her striking black-and-white portraits that captured intimate moments. She frequently focused on individuals marginalized by society, such as those with mental health issues, transgender people, and circus performers. Arbus’s work often explored themes of identity, as seen in her famous photograph Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey (1967), which highlighted both the similarities and subtle differences between twin sisters. She once remarked, “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know,” reflecting her belief in the complexity of her art.
Born Diane Nemerov in New York City on March 24, 1923, she grew up in a privileged family, which supported her artistic aspirations from an early age. Her first encounter with photography came in 1941 when she visited Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery with her husband, Allan Arbus, where she saw the works of photographers like Mathew Brady, Paul Strand, and Eugène Atget. In the mid-1940s, the couple ventured into commercial photography, contributing to magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. By the 1950s, disillusioned with commercial work, Arbus turned to street photography, capturing the diversity of New York’s inhabitants. These photographs were featured in The Museum of Modern Art’s 1967 exhibition, New Documents, alongside those of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander.
Struggling with depression throughout her life, Arbus tragically took her own life on July 26, 1971, at the age of 48. A year after her passing, the Museum of Modern Art held her first major retrospective. Today, her work is part of permanent collections at prestigious institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
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