Ugly Hedgehog - Photography Forum
Home Active Topics Newest Pictures Search Login Register
Traditional Street and Architectural Photography
Diane Arbus - Early Street subjects 1956 to 1963
May 31, 2016 02:26:24   #
RichardQ Loc: Colorado
 
On May 29, The New York Times printed a review of an upcoming exhibit of unexhibited and unpublished street photographs taken by Diane Arbus. Her early career with her husband was in fashion photography, but around 1955 she rejected the phoniness of the studio and began investigating street photography. At first she used 35 mm but around 1962 graduated to square-frame medium-format. She numbered all her negatives in sequence. The total came to over 6,000 before she committed suicide in 1971 at age 47. The Times articles include eight photos from the show (1956 to 1963) and comments by Arthur Lubow ("How Diane Arbus Became 'Arbus'"), and Randy Kennedy and Jeff L. Rosenheim ("The Diane Arbus You've Never Seen").

Maybe these URLs will open them for you:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/arts/design/how-diane-arbus-became-arbus.html
http://www,nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/29/arts/design/diane-arbus-photos-unseen.html

After 1963 Arbus was "discovered" by the art critics and her work was widely published, although some criticised her choices of subjects, which often included physically deformed or grotesque people. She never concealed her intent to photograph someone on the street; she preferred to wait until they noticed her camera and looked at her. That was her "moment of decision". But she didn't just shoot and run -- she reportedly made friends with many of her subjects amd photographed some again over the years. She rarely made more than one exposure. The exhibit mentioned above consists of 100 of her early photographs, provided by her two daughters via the Diane Arbus Archive. It will open July 12, 2016 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Met Breuer in Floor 2. I don't know if the Met will charge admission, but since they are providing a catalogue, I suspect they will. I understand a new book about Arbus is coming out around the same time: "Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer" (Ecco) by Arthur Lubow.

Reply
May 31, 2016 03:10:07   #
rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin
 
Minor correction to the second link:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/29/arts/design/diane-arbus-photos-unseen.html

Reply
May 31, 2016 10:10:58   #
RichardQ Loc: Colorado
 


Thanks, Ralph! My old eyes sometimes can't distinguish between a comma and a period.

Reply
 
 
May 31, 2016 10:17:33   #
Dave Chinn
 
Richard this was a very interesting read. Thanks for sharing.
Dave

Reply
May 31, 2016 11:27:33   #
RichardQ Loc: Colorado
 
I should have pointed out that among the comments under the Arbus photos is a link to the 1972 Aperture monograph about her work (it's included in Jeff Rosenheim's paragraph). The link takes you to a film of the Aperture book showing her photos, page-spread by page-spread, as someone's hand slowly leafs through the whole book. This is followed by an interview of one of Arbus' daughters and a film with Arbus' own voice commenting on her work as various photos are shown. The voice was recorded by a Japanese student during a class she conducted. He could hardly understand English so he recorded his classes for later study. Hang in there -- it's well worth it!

Reply
Jun 1, 2016 11:01:03   #
dansmith Loc: Southwest Alberta Canada
 
Thanks for posting this Richard, quick read through this a.m., bookmarked for study later.

Reply
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.
Traditional Street and Architectural Photography
UglyHedgehog.com - Forum
Copyright 2011-2024 Ugly Hedgehog, Inc.