Diane Arbus (1923-1978) was an American photographer best known for her intimate black-and-white portraits. Arbus often photographed people on the fringes of society, including the mentally ill, transgender people, and circus performers. These images were later shown in The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “New Documents” (1967)
Interested in probing questions of identity, Arbus’s Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey (1967), simultaneously captured the underlying differences and physical resemblance of twin sisters. “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know,” she once mused. Born Diane Nemerov on March 24, 1923 in New York, NY, she was raised in a wealthy family, enabling her to pursue artistic interests from an early age.
She first saw the photographs of Mathew Brady, Paul Strand, and Eugène Atget, while visiting Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery with her husband Allan Arbus in 1941. During the mid-1940s, the married couple began a commercial photography venture that contributed to Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
Burned out on commercial work by the 1950s, Arbus began roaming the streets of New York with her camera, documenting the city through its citizens. These images were later shown alongside those of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander in The Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “New Documents” (1967).
Having struggled with depressive episodes throughout her life, Arbus committed suicide at the age of 48. In 1972, a year after her death, the first major retrospective of Arbus’ work took place at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Today, her works are held in the collections of 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, among others.
© 2020. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Diane Arbus or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
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| Ms. Diane Arbus |
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| Two girls on the beach Coney Island, N.Y., 1958 |
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| Stripper with bare breasts sitting in her dressing room Atlantic City, N.J. 1961 |
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| Child with Toy Hand Grenade Central Park, NYC, 1962 |
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| triplets in their bedroom 1963 |
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| Waitress, Nudist Camp NJ, 1963 |
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| Lady bartender at home with a souvenir dog New Orleans, La., 1964 |
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| Mia Villiers-Farrow on a bed 1964 |
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| Mae West in a chair at home Santa Monica, 1965 |
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| Young couple on a bench Washington Square, NYC. 1965 |
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| A Young Man in Curlers at Home West 20th Street, NYC, 1966 |
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| A Woman with Pearl Necklace and Earrings N.Y.C., 1967 |
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| Boy With a Straw Hat Waiting to March in a Pro-War Parade NYC, 1967 |
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| Identical twins Roselle, NJ, 1967 |
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| A Naked Man Being a Woman NYC, 1968 |
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| Girl in her circus costume Maryland. 1970 |
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| Jewish giant at home with his parents The Bronx, NYC, 1970 |
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| Masked Woman in a Wheelchair Pennsylvania, 1970 |
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| Mexican Dwarf in his Hotel Room NYC, 1970 |
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| Untitled #6 1970-71 |
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| Untitled #21 1970–71 |
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| Untitled #28 1970-71 |
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| A woman with her baby monkey N.J. 1971 |
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| Jayne Mansfield Climber Ottaviano, actress, with her daughter Jayne Marie n.d. |
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| Nothing is ever the same as they said it was n.d. |
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