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. 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 using symmetry (although somehow flawed).
Her use of the square photograph format allows her to explore her subjects with symmetry without artificially editing afterwards. Perhaps I will attempt to use this sort of method as a continuation of my current work.
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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