Diane Arbus at a Love-In, Central Park, New York City, 1969
Photo by Garry Winogrand
Diane Arbus was born 100 years ago today.
Arbus was a photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal."
Arbus believed that a camera could be “a little bit cold, a little bit harsh.” But its scrutiny revealed the truth, or the flaws — the difference between what people wanted others to see and what they really did see.
Arbus was said to be "afraid . . . that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freaks.’” That phrase has been used repeatedly to describe her.
In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale. Millions of people viewed traveling exhibitions of her work in 1972–1979.
Between 2003 and 2006, Arbus and her work were the subjects of another major traveling exhibition, Diane Arbus Revelations.
In 2006, the motion picture, Fur, starring Nicole Kidman as Arbus, presented a fictional version of her life story.
Although some of Arbus's photographs have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction, Arbus's work has provoked controversy. For example, Norman Mailer was quoted in 1971 as saying "Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child." Others have, however, pointed out that Mailer was dissatisfied with a picture of him holding his crotch taken by Arbus for the New York Times Book Review.
Arbus was born as Diane Nemerov to David Nemerov and Gertrude Russek Nemerov. The Nemerovs were a Jewish couple who lived in New York City and owned Russek's, a famous Fifth Avenue department store.
Because of her family's wealth, Arbus was insulated from the effects of the Great Depression while growing up in the 1930s.
Arbus's father became a painter after retiring from Russek's. Her younger sister would become a sculptor and designer. Her older brother, Howard Nemerov, would later become United States Poet Laureate and the father of the Americanist art historian, Alexander Nemerov.
Jack Dracula, the Marked Man
Photo by Diane Arbus
A young man in curlers at home, West 20th Street, New York City, 1966
Photo by Diane Arbus