Diane Arbus was a photographer who primarily documented people. She was known for her black and white square photographs. She was also known for her photos of the 'freaks' in society, those who are marginalized by the community around them or those people who she felt has a 'surreal' kind of reality to them. She aimed to document people as they were, not as flattering reproductions. I think the honesty in her photography is what struck me. Yet there is a mystery to them as well. They lead you to want to know more about what is happening, find out the story behind the person. She obviously has a knack for finding intriguing characters in society.
When looking through her works it is obvious to me that she also had a fascination with relationships. Much of her work consists of pairs or groups of people. They also seem to focus on the similarities they have with each other. This leads to her fascination with twins and triplets also.
Her images which depict marginalized characters seem to aim to find the personality behind the attribute that makes them 'marginalized. The images of others however seem to satirize the society which creates marginalized groups. A lot of her images note the conformity of upper class society suggesting to me that Arbus valued the different and unique very much.
Through my work I aim to find the unique traits of the people around me while also documenting relationships and notions of 'the group'.
References
Arbus, Diane. "The Photography of Diane Arbus" Accessed June 2, 2011. http://diane-arbus-photography.com/
Bosworth, Patricia. 2005. Diane Arbus: A Biography. New York: W.W. Norton.
Lee, Anthony W and John Pultz. 2003. Diane Arbus: Family Albums. Kansas: Yale University Press, in association with the Mount Holyoke College Museum of Art and the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas.
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