Editing Diane Arbus (section)

==Photographic career==
Arbus received her first camera, a [[Graflex]], from Allan shortly after they married.<ref name=Lubow2003/> Shortly thereafter, she enrolled in classes with photographer [[Berenice Abbott]]. The Arbuses' interests in photography led them, in 1941, to visit the gallery of [[Alfred Stieglitz]], and learn about the photographers [[Mathew Brady]], [[Timothy H. O'Sullivan|Timothy O'Sullivan]], [[Paul Strand]], [[Bill Brandt]], and [[Eugène Atget]].<ref name=Revelations>''Diane Arbus: Revelations''. New York: Random House, 2003. {{ISBN|0-375-50620-9}}.</ref>{{rp|129}}<ref name=Ronnen>[[Meir Ronnen|Ronnen, Meir]]. [http://info.jpost.com/C003/Supplements/LQ2003/art.15.html "The Velazquez of New York"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100327043626/http://info.jpost.com/C003/Supplements/LQ2003/art.15.html |date=March 27, 2010 }} ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'', October 10, 2003. Retrieved February 12, 2010.</ref> In the early 1940s, Diane's father employed Diane and Allan to take photographs for the department store's advertisements.<ref name=Lubow2003/> Allan was a photographer for the [[Signal Corps (United States Army)|U.S. Army Signal Corps]] in [[World War II]].<ref name=Ronnen/>

In 1946, after the war, the Arbuses began a commercial photography business called "Diane & Allan Arbus", with Diane as art director and Allan as the photographer.<ref name=Lubow2003/> She would come up with the concepts for their shoots and then take care of the models. She grew dissatisfied with this role, a role even her husband thought was "demeaning".<ref name=Cut2017 /> They contributed to ''[[Glamour (magazine)|Glamour]]'', ''[[Seventeen (American magazine)|Seventeen]]'', ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'',  and other magazines even though "they both hated the fashion world".<ref name=Muir/><ref name=Tarzan>Tarzan, Deloris. "Arbus – Her Brutal Lens Disclosed Aspects Previously Unseen in Her Subjects". ''The Seattle Times'', September 21, 1986.</ref> Despite over 200 pages of their fashion editorial in ''Glamour'', and over 80 pages in ''Vogue'', the Arbuses' fashion photography has been described as of "middling quality".<ref name=ONeill2008>O'Neill, Alistair. "A Young Woman, N.Y.C." ''Photography & Culture'', vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 7–20, July 2008.</ref> [[Edward Steichen]]'s noted 1955 photography exhibition, ''[[The Family of Man]]'', did include a photograph by the Arbuses of a father and son reading a newspaper.<ref name=DeCarlo2004/>

She studied briefly with [[Alexey Brodovich]] in 1954.<ref name=Badger2003>{{cite book|title=Arbus [née Nemerov], Diane.|last=Badger|first=Gerry|date=2003|doi = 10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T003644|chapter = Arbus &#91;née Nemerov&#93;, Diane}}</ref> However, it was her studies with [[Lisette Model]], which began in 1956, that encouraged Arbus to focus exclusively on her own work.<ref name=Lubow2003/> That year Arbus quit the commercial photography business and began numbering her negatives.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Diane Arbus: The Early Years|last=Pogrebin|first=Robin|author-link=Robin Pogrebin|date=July 10, 2016|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> (Her last known negative was labeled #7459.)<ref name=Cut2017 /><ref name=Lubow2003/> Based on Model's advice, Arbus spent time with an empty camera so she could practice observation.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/photography/what-to-see/incest-suicide--and-the-real-reason-we-should-remember-diane-arb/|title=Incest, suicide – and the real reason we should remember Diane Arbus|last=Wood|first=Gaby|date=October 8, 2016|work=The Telegraph|access-date=March 7, 2018}}</ref> Arbus also credits Model with making it clear to her that "the more specific you are, the more general it'll be."<ref name=Lubow2003/>

By 1956 she worked with a 35mm Nikon, wandering the streets of New York City and meeting her subjects largely, though not always, by chance. The idea of personal identity as socially constructed is one that Arbus came back to, whether it be performers, women and men wearing makeup, or a literal mask obstructing one's face. Critics have speculated that the choices in her subjects reflected her own identity issues, for she said that the only thing she suffered from as a child was never having felt adversity. This evolved into a longing for things that money couldn't buy such as experiences in the underground social world. She is often praised for her sympathy for these subjects, a quality which is not immediately understood through the images themselves, but through her writing and the testimonies of the men and women she portrayed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theartstory.org/artist-arbus-diane.htm|title=Diane Arbus Photography, Bio, Ideas|website=The Art Story|access-date=March 16, 2019}}</ref> A few years later, in 1958 she began making lists of who and what she was interested in photographing.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Krasinski |first1=Jennifer |title=The Met Breuer's Diane Arbus Exhibition Is a Tour de Force |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2016/07/26/the-met-breuers-diane-arbus-exhibition-is-a-tour-de-force/ |website=thevillagevoice.com |date=July 26, 2016 |publisher=The Village Voice |access-date=November 6, 2018}}</ref> She began photographing on assignment for magazines such as ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'', ''Harper's Bazaar'', and ''[[The Sunday Times Magazine]]'' in 1959.<ref name="DeCarlo2004" />

Around 1962, Arbus switched from a [[135 film|35 mm]] [[Nikon]] camera which produced the grainy rectangular images characteristic of her post-studio work<ref name=Jacob2018/>{{rp|55}} to a [[twin-lens reflex camera|twin-lens reflex]] [[Rolleiflex]] camera which produced more detailed square images. She explained this transition saying "In the beginning of photographing I used to make very grainy things. I'd be fascinated by what the grain did because it would make a kind of tapestry of all these little dots ... But when I'd been working for a while with all these dots, I suddenly wanted terribly to get through there. I wanted to see the real differences between things ... I began to get terribly hyped on clarity."<ref name=Monograph1972>{{cite book |last1=Arbus |first1=Diane |title=Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph |date=1972 |publisher=[[Aperture Foundation]]|location=New York |isbn=978-0912334400 |url=https://archive.org/details/dianearbus00arbu }}</ref>{{rp|8–9}} In 1964, Arbus began using a 2-1/4 [[Mamiya#6×6 cm format / Medium Format Professional|Mamiyaflex]] camera with flash in addition to the Rolleiflex.<ref name=Sass/><ref name=Revelations/>{{rp|59}}

Arbus's style is described as "direct and unadorned, a frontal portrait centered in a square format. Her pioneering use of flash in daylight isolated the subjects from the background, which contributed to the photos' surreal quality."<ref name="ReferenceA">Fox, Catherine. "Snapshot/Diane Arbus: True Portrait Lies Outside Film." ''The Atlanta Journal Constitution'' December 3, 2006, ProQuest. March 2, 2017</ref><ref name="DeCarlo2004" /><ref name="Sass">Sass, Louis A. "'Hyped on Clarity': Diane Arbus and the Postmodern Condition". ''Raritan'', vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 1–37, Summer 2005.</ref><ref name="Lacayo">Lacayo, Richard. [https://web.archive.org/web/20051117090055/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1006046,00.html "Photography: Diane Arbus: Visionary Voyeurism"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', November 3, 2003. Retrieved February 12, 2010.</ref> Her methods included establishing a strong personal relationship with her subjects and re-photographing some of them over many years.<ref name=DeCarlo2004/><ref name=Muir/>

In spite of being widely published and achieving some artistic recognition, Arbus struggled to support herself through her work.<ref name=Rubinfien2005/><ref name=Prose>{{cite magazine |last1=Prose |first1=Francine |title=Revisiting the Icons: The intimate photography of Diane Arbus |url=https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/diane-arbus/press |access-date=November 12, 2018 |magazine=Harper's Magazine |date=November 2003}}</ref> "During her lifetime, there was no market for collecting photographs as works of art, and her prints usually sold for $100 or less."<ref name=Estrin2018/> It is evident from her correspondence that lack of money was a persistent concern.<ref name=Revelations/>

In 1963, Arbus was awarded a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] for a project on "American rites, manners, and customs"; the fellowship was renewed in 1966.<ref name=Guggenheim/><ref>"Guggenheim Fund Grants $1,380,000". ''The New York Times'', April 29, 1963.</ref>

Throughout the 1960s, Arbus supported herself largely by taking magazine assignments and commissions.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Portraits on Assignment (Press Release)|date=1984|work=Robert Miller Gallery, Inc.}}</ref> For example, in 1968 she shot documentary photographs of poor [[Sharecropping|sharecroppers]] in rural South Carolina (for ''Esquire'' magazine). In 1969 a rich and prominent actor and theater owner, Konrad Matthaei, and his wife, Gay, commissioned Arbus to photograph a family Christmas gathering.<ref name=Kimmelman2004>{{cite news|last=Kimmelman|first=Michael|author-link=Michael Kimmelman|title=Diane Arbus, a Hunter Wielding a Lens |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/09/arts/photography-review-diane-arbus-a-hunter-wielding-a-lens.html |access-date=November 7, 2018|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 9, 2004}}</ref> During her career, Arbus photographed [[Mae West]], [[Ozzie Nelson]] and [[Harriet Nelson]], [[Bennett Cerf]], atheist [[Madalyn Murray O'Hair]], [[Norman Mailer]], [[Jayne Mansfield]], [[Eugene McCarthy]], billionaire [[H. L. Hunt]], [[Gloria Vanderbilt]]'s baby [[Anderson Cooper]], [[Coretta Scott King]], and Marguerite Oswald ([[Lee Harvey Oswald]]'s mother).<ref name=Kimmelman2004 /><ref name=Revelations /><ref name=Rubinfien2005/> In general, her magazine assignments decreased as her fame as an artist increased.<ref name=DeCarlo2004/><ref>"The Other Side of Diane Arbus". ''Society'', vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 75–79, January–February 1991.</ref> Szarkowski hired Arbus in 1970 to research an exhibition on [[photojournalism]] called "From the Picture Press"; it included many photographs by [[Weegee]] whose work Arbus admired.<ref name=Crookston/><ref name=Ronnen/><ref>Szarkowski, John. ''From the Picture Press''. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1973.</ref> She also taught photography at the [[Parsons School of Design]] and the [[Cooper Union]] in New York City, and the [[Rhode Island School of Design]] in [[Providence, Rhode Island]].<ref name=Crookston/><ref name=Met2005>Metropolitan Museum of Art. [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Arbus/arbus_more.htm "Diane Arbus Revelations: More About This Exhibition"]. March 8, 2005 – May 30, 2005. Retrieved February 7, 2010.</ref>

Late in her career, the Metropolitan Museum of Art indicated to her that they would buy three of her photographs for $75 each, but citing a lack of funds, purchased only two. As she wrote to Allan Arbus, "So I guess being poor is no disgrace."<ref name=Revelations/>{{rp|200}}<ref name=Jacob2018/>{{rp|63}}

Beginning in 1969 Arbus undertook a series of photographs of people at New Jersey residences for [[Developmental disability|developmentally]] and [[Intellectual disability|intellectually disabled]] people, posthumously named ''Untitled''.<ref name=Lubow2018>{{cite news|last=Lubow|first=Arthur|author-link=Arthur Lubow|title=Arbus, Untitled and Uneartlhy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/arts/design/diane-arbus-zwirner.html |access-date=November 16, 2018 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=November 15, 2018}}</ref><ref name=Rubinfien2005/><ref name=Pagel>[[David Pagel|Pagel, David]]. [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-05-15-ca-2061-story.html "Diane Arbus: Pictures from the Institutions"]. ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', May 15, 1992. Retrieved February 12, 2010.</ref> Arbus returned to several facilities repeatedly for Halloween parties, picnics, and dances.<ref name=Lehrer2018>{{cite magazine |last1=Lehrer |first1=Adam |title=Diane Arbus 'Untitled' Works Inaugurate David Zwirner's Status as Co-Reps of Artist's Estate |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamlehrer/2018/11/06/diane-arbus-untitled-works-inaugurate-david-zwirners-status-as-co-reps-of-artists-estate/#20486c77d2df |access-date=November 12, 2018 |magazine=Forbes |date=November 6, 2018}}</ref> In a letter to Allan Arbus dated November 28, 1969, she described these photographs as "lyric and tender and pretty".<ref name=Revelations/>{{rp|203}}

''[[Artforum]]'' published six photographs, including a cover image, from Arbus's portfolio, ''A box of ten photographs'', in May 1971.<ref name=Revelations/>{{rp|219}}<ref name=Artforum1971>{{cite journal |last1=Arbus |first1=Diane |title=Five Photographs by Diane Arbus |journal=Artforum |date=May 1971 |volume=9 |issue=9 |url=https://www.artforum.com/print/197105 |access-date=November 13, 2018}}</ref> After his encounter with Arbus and the portfolio, Philip Leider, then editor in chief of ''Artforum'' and a photography skeptic, admitted, "With Diane Arbus, one could find oneself interested in photography or not, but one could no longer . . . deny its status as art."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leider |first1=Philip |title=Photography |date=October 16, 2004 |publisher=Sotheby's |page=150}}</ref> She was the first photographer to be featured in ''Artforum'' and "Leider's admission of Arbus into this critical bastion of late modernism was instrumental in shifting the perception of photography and ushering its acceptance into the realm of 'serious' art."<ref name=Jacob2018/>{{rp|51}}

The first major exhibition of her photographs occurred at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in the influential<ref name="new-york-times-gefter">{{cite web |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/arts/09szarkowski.html | date = July 9, 2007 | access-date = December 26, 2014 |first=Philip|last=Gefter|author-link=Philip Gefter|work=[[The New York Times]]| title = John Szarkowski, Curator of Photography, Dies at 81}}</ref> ''[[New Documents]]'' (1967) alongside the work of [[Garry Winogrand]] and [[Lee Friedlander]], curated by [[John Szarkowski]].<ref name="moma-press-release">{{cite web|url = https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/3860/releases/MOMA_1967_Jan-June_0034_21.pdf?2010 | access-date = December 26, 2014 | publisher = [[Museum of Modern Art]] | title = No. 21}}</ref><ref name="guardian-ohagan">{{cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jul/20/john-szarkowski-photography-moma | date = July 20, 2010 | access-date = December 26, 2014 | first = Sean | last = O'Hagan | author-link = Sean O'Hagan (journalist) | newspaper = [[The Guardian]] | title = Was John Szarkowski the most influential person in 20th-century photography?}}</ref> New Documents, which drew almost 250,000 visitors<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago|date=March 1973|title=News Release}}</ref> demonstrated Arbus's interest in what Szarkowski referred to as society's "frailties"<ref name=Badger2003 /> and presented what he described as "a new generation of documentary photographers...whose aim has been not to reform life but to know it",<ref name="moma-press-release" /> described elsewhere as "photography that emphasized the pathos and conflicts of modern life presented without editorializing or sentimentalizing but with a critical, observant eye".<ref>{{cite book | last= Warren | first= Lynne  | title= Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography, 3-Volume Set | url= http://cw.routledge.com/ref/20Cphoto/arbus.html | access-date= December 27, 2014 | year= 2006 | publisher= [[Routledge]] | location= London | isbn= 978-1-57958-393-4}}</ref> The show was polarizing, receiving both praise and criticism, with some identifying Arbus as a disinterested voyeur and others praising her for her evident empathy with her subjects.<ref name=Badger2003 />

In 2018, ''The New York Times'' published a belated obituary of Arbus<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-diane-arbus.html|title=Diane Arbus Called Her Portraits 'A Secret About a Secret'|last=Estrin|first=James|author-link=James Estrin|date=March 8, 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=March 16, 2019}}</ref> as part of the Overlooked history project.<ref name=PadnaniHow>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/insider/overlooked-obituary.html|title=How an Obits Project on Overlooked Women Was Born|last=Padnani|first=Amisha|author-link=Amy Padnani|date=March 8, 2018|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=March 16, 2019}}</ref> The Smithsonian American Art Museum housed an exclusive exhibit from April 6, 2018, to January 27, 2019, that featured one of Arbus' portfolios, ''A box of ten photographs''. The SAAM is the only museum currently displaying the work. The collection is "one of just four complete editions that Arbus printed and annotated. The three other editions—the artist never executed her plan to make 50—are held privately". The Smithsonian edition was made for [[Bea Feitler]], an art director who both employed and befriended Arbus. After Feitler's death, Baltimore collector G. H. Dalsheimer bought her portfolio from Sotheby's in 1982 for $42,900. The SAAM then bought it from Dalsheimer in 1986. The portfolio was put away in the museum's collection, until 2018.<ref name=DeCarlo2004 />