Artist

Diane Arbus

1923–1971

40 works in the collection 9 exhibitions at the Whitney

Biography

Diane Arbus’s photographs convey her unique vision of a time and a place— the period from approximately 1958 to 1971, primarily in and around New York— through intimate portraits of an array of strangers, acquaintances, and relations. Arbus wrote: “For me the subject of the picture is always more important than the picture. And more complicated.” The daughter of a wealthy New York family, Arbus became involved in photography with her husband, and the couple established a fashion photography business in 1946. She concurrently pursued her own photographs, but study with the groundbreaking photographer Lisette Model in the late 1950s precipitated a turning point in her work. In 1959 Arbus left her husband, moved to Greenwich Village, and began to concentrate on street photography of people she encountered throughout Manhattan; some of these images, taken with a 35mm camera, were published as photo essays in Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar magazines. Arbus’s mature style developed after 1963, when she used a medium-format Rolleiflex camera, which resulted in a distinctive square format, and often a strobe.

In Patriotic Young Man with a Flag, N.Y.C., Arbus isolates a demonstrator at a pro–Vietnam War rally in dramatic close-up, the harsh flash capturing his contorted expression, which, juxtaposed with a button declaring “I’m Proud,” offers a discomfiting vision of patriotism. In another distinctly American portrait, A family on their lawn one Sunday in Westchester, N.Y. presents a suburban family on their lawn; “The parents,” Arbus wrote, “seem to be dreaming the child and the child seems to be inventing them.” Although she worked for just over a decade (she committed suicide in 1971), Arbus produced some of the most searing images in the pantheon of photography.

Works in the collection

Child in a beret, N.Y.C.

1962 · Photographs

Miss Cora Pratt, the Counterfeit Lady, N.Y.C

1961 · Photographs

Girl beckoning from the water, Coney Island, N.Y.C.

1960 · Photographs

Corpse with receding hairline and a toe tag, N.Y.C.

1959 · Photographs

Child selling plastic orchids at night, N.Y.C. 1963

1963, printed 1965–1966 · Photographs

The Human Pincushion, Louis Ciervo, in his silk shirt, Hagerstown, Md. 1961

1961, printed 1966–1967 · Photographs

A husband and wife in the woods at a nudist camp, N.J. 1963

1963, printed 1963–1964 · Photographs

Female impersonator on stage in a ruffled gown showing her breast, Hubert's Museum, N.Y.C. 1956

1956, printed 1961–1965 · Photographs

Two men on a bench at the Bowery Mission, N.Y.C. 1960

1960, printed 1960 · Photographs

Retired man and his wife at home in a nudist camp one morning, N.J. 1963

1963, printed 1970–1971 · Photographs

A family one evening in a nudist camp, PA. 1965

1965, printed 1966–1969 · Photographs

Three Puerto Rican women, N.Y.C. 1963

1963, printed 1963–1965 · Photographs

Wax museum axe murderer, Coney Island, N.Y. 1960

1960 · Photographs

Four people at a gallery opening, N.Y.C. 1968

1968, printed 1972 · Photographs

Child teasing her governess, N.Y.C. 1962

1962 · Photographs

Michael Pollard, N.Y.C.

1967 · Photographs

Seated woman smoking at a nudist camp, N.J. 1963

1963, printed between 1963 and 1965 · Photographs

Bare-chested female impersonator backstage, alone, N.Y.C. 1960

1960 · Photographs

Superstar at home, N.Y.C.

1968 · Photographs

Young Man on a Sofa, N.Y.C.

1966, printed c. 1966–1967 · Photographs

Woman In Her Negligee, N.Y.C.

1966, printed 1972 · Photographs

His Serene Highness Prince Robert De Rohan Courtenay, N.Y.C.

1961 · Photographs

Max Maxwell Landar, Uncle Sam, N.Y.C.

1961 · Photographs

Untitled #09

1970–71, printed 1990 · Photographs

Untitled #16

1970–1971 · Photographs

William Mack, Sage of the Wilderness, N.Y.C.

1961 · Photographs

Miss Stormé de Larverie, the Lady Who Appears to be a Gentleman, N.Y.C.

1961 · Photographs

Masked woman in a wheelchair

1970 · Photographs

Two female impersonators backstage, N.Y.C.

c. 1962 · Photographs

Woman with a Veil on Fifth Avenue, N.Y.C.

1968 · Photographs

A family on their lawn one Sunday in Westchester, N.Y.

1968, c. 1969–71 · Photographs

Carroll Baker on screen in "Baby Doll"

1956 · Photographs

Teenage Couple on Hudson Street, N.Y.C.

1963, print date unknown · Photographs

Triplets in their bedroom, N.J.

1963, print date unknown · Photographs

Puerto Rican Woman with a Beauty Mark, N.Y.C.

1965 · Photographs

A Young Man and His Pregnant Wife in Washington Square Park, N.Y.C.

1965, print date unknown · Photographs

Untitled #4

1970–1971, print date unknown · Photographs

A very young baby, N.Y.C.

1968 · Photographs

Patriotic Young Man with a Flag, N.Y.C.

1967 · Photographs

Two Ladies at the Automat, N.Y.C.

1966 · Photographs

Exhibitions at the Whitney