What do you think?
Rate this book
Diane Arbus Documents
A groundbreaking publication offering insight into the critical conversations and misconceptions around this unrivaled artist’s works.
Best known for her penetrating images exploring what it means to be human, Diane Arbus is a pivotal and singular figure in American postwar photography. Arbus’s black-and-white photographs demolish aesthetic conventions and upend all certainties. Both lauded and criticized for her photographs of people deemed “outsiders,” Arbus continues to be a lightning rod for a wide range of opinions surrounding her subject matter and approach. Critics and writers have described her work as “sinister” and “appalling” as well as “revelatory,” “sincere,” and “compassionate.” Through an assemblage of articles, criticism, and essays from 1967 to the present, Diane Arbus Documents charts the reception of the revolutionary photographer's work.
Illuminating fifty years of evolution in the field of art criticism, Documents provides a new template for understanding the work of any formidable artist. Organized in eleven sections that focus on major exhibitions and significant events emerging from Arbus’s work, as well as on her methods and intentions, the sixty-nine facsimiles of previously published articles and essays––an archive by all accounts––trace the discourse on Arbus, contextualizing her inimitable oeuvre. Supplemented by an annotated bibliography of more than six hundred entries and a comprehensive exhibition history, Documents serves as an important resource for photographers, researchers, art historians, and art critics, in addition to students of art criticism and the interested reader alike.
Best known for her penetrating images exploring what it means to be human, Diane Arbus is a pivotal and singular figure in American postwar photography. Arbus’s black-and-white photographs demolish aesthetic conventions and upend all certainties. Both lauded and criticized for her photographs of people deemed “outsiders,” Arbus continues to be a lightning rod for a wide range of opinions surrounding her subject matter and approach. Critics and writers have described her work as “sinister” and “appalling” as well as “revelatory,” “sincere,” and “compassionate.” Through an assemblage of articles, criticism, and essays from 1967 to the present, Diane Arbus Documents charts the reception of the revolutionary photographer's work.
Illuminating fifty years of evolution in the field of art criticism, Documents provides a new template for understanding the work of any formidable artist. Organized in eleven sections that focus on major exhibitions and significant events emerging from Arbus’s work, as well as on her methods and intentions, the sixty-nine facsimiles of previously published articles and essays––an archive by all accounts––trace the discourse on Arbus, contextualizing her inimitable oeuvre. Supplemented by an annotated bibliography of more than six hundred entries and a comprehensive exhibition history, Documents serves as an important resource for photographers, researchers, art historians, and art critics, in addition to students of art criticism and the interested reader alike.
496 pages, Hardcover
Published September 27, 2022
2 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Diane Arbus
47 books179 followersPeople best know portraits of prostitutes, transvestites, persons with physical deformities, and other unconventional subjects of American photographer Diane Arbus.
Diane Arbus noted dwarfs, giants, and ordinary citizens in poses and settings on the fringes of society.
Arbus used 35-mm cameras to create her early work but adopted the Rolleiflex medium format twin-lens reflex before the 1960s. This format provided a square aspect ratio, higher image resolution, and a waist-level viewfinder, not a standard eye, which allowed Arbus to connect in different ways. Arbus also experimented with the use of flashes in daylight, allowing her to highlight and separate from the background.
In July 1971, Arbus ingested a large quantity of barbiturates and then slashed her wrists to commit suicide in Greenwich Village at the age of 48 years.
Diane Arbus noted dwarfs, giants, and ordinary citizens in poses and settings on the fringes of society.
Arbus used 35-mm cameras to create her early work but adopted the Rolleiflex medium format twin-lens reflex before the 1960s. This format provided a square aspect ratio, higher image resolution, and a waist-level viewfinder, not a standard eye, which allowed Arbus to connect in different ways. Arbus also experimented with the use of flashes in daylight, allowing her to highlight and separate from the background.
In July 1971, Arbus ingested a large quantity of barbiturates and then slashed her wrists to commit suicide in Greenwich Village at the age of 48 years.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 19, 2024
took me a full workday to get thru was incredibly interesting
good essays on the power dynamics of the camera and reflections on susan sontag’s essay about arbus. would revisit !!
good essays on the power dynamics of the camera and reflections on susan sontag’s essay about arbus. would revisit !!
Displaying 1 of 1 review