In the October 1969 Harper’s Bazaar Magazine, there is a picture of Jacqueline Susan and her husband Irving Mansfield. It was shot in their Beverly Hills hotel room. She had just been entered in the Guinness Book of World Records for record sales of her book “Valley of the Dolls.” In the picture, Mr. Mansfield is adorned only in a chain. Ms Susan seems to be wearing only a bath towel. From a photography perspective, this picture displays a substantial trust by the models to allow this level of access. How do you get accepted into a couple’s personal space and get them to strip virtually nude for a picture intended to be published nationally? Therein lies the real secret of Diane’s success—she knew how to disarm people, gain their confidence and remove their public mask. In this case, she got the people, who were not models, to comply with her need for an intimate picture.

At these times, Diane was relentless in her pursuit for the access and executions. Mr. Mansfield complained vigorously throughout the session, as Diane shot hundreds of frames. Sensing that Mr. Mansfield was about to end the session, Arbus disarmed him by pleading for just a few more shots [she really meant a few more rolls] for her portfolio (Israel, 132-133). Diane’s formula to unmask people was to first shoot a few public pictures. Often these pictures were shot on the street or through a social meeting. Sometimes, she would get great pictures in this first stage. However, the real trend was to next get photographs on the person’s grounds or living room. If Diane was really successful, you might see a third set of contact sheets from the person’s bedroom or intimate setting. I got the feeling that her methodology was very much alike to a sexual conquest. Sometimes, Diane got her intimate pictures in the first setting, such as the photo of Mae West in her bed, Blaze Star or the politically sensitive Tokyo Rose.

I believe that her quest to identify realism and intimacy was more important than the fact that she shot the freaks. Today, the concept of an environmental portrait is common. Annie Leibovitz and others have made their mark in the photographic world significantly based on environmental portraits, which is now a very desirable approach to portraiture. Previously, the goal of photography was to stage a situation to make someone more pretty or powerful than reality. Diane was all about reality. Her picture of the feminist Germain Greer represents both her structured process to gain her subjects confidence and then totally de-mask her subject for a portrait of their soul. Well, at least from Diane's viewpoint.

I remember a statement from my nephew, Jack, who wanted to end his cello lessons. Jack claimed that his progress was limited because he didn’t start his musical training early enough to effectively instill the approach to music in his brain. Diane was born and trained in the arts. In Diane’s privileged childhood she was given every opportunity that the rich Nemerov’s could provide, which included academic and practical art. Her father owned a posh 5th Avenue department store, and Diane had many opportunities to work with their stylists and advertising people. Correspondingly, the Nemerov’s lived in an upper class Central Park West apartment. They had butlers, maids, nannies and chauffeurs. A private school education would seem only normal. Diane excelled in the academics and art. During an art assignment, the students were asked to design a house. All the students, except Diane, drew of a very normal Cape Cod or Georgian home. Diane drew a sphere, with strategically located windows, so that she could use it as a platform to spy on the stars above and the people walking below.

Her life in the Nemerov apartment lacked the warmth and reality that Diane needed. Her father was almost always away from the house, and had a very distant relationship with both her and her brother Howard. To Diane the relationship with their parents was more obscured due to all the servants who assumed many parental duties.

Alice in Wonderland was one of Diane’s favorite stories as a child and adult. She identified with Alice’s quest and questions on reality verses fantasy. Bosworth writes about one of Diane’s field trips during school. The students visited the Ethical Culture settlement house, which was an immaculate building amid the slum. Diane’s eyes wandered to the slum with the strange people, and longed to know their story.

In Diane's journal, she scribbled: “For about four years I had visions of being a great sad artist and I turned all my energies toward it.” This was evident not only in her painting, but in Elbert Lenrow’s Great Books course, “because,” Lenrow says, “she wouldn’t accept other peoples idea of contradictions. She was examining rather than interpreting the world (Bosworth, 51).

In spite of her family’s objection, Diane Nemerov married Allan Arbus in April 1941. Diane embraced Allan totally with a primary goal to be a good wife. She started doing all the traditional things such as cleaning, shopping and cooking, which were things that her servants previously performed. Actually, Diane and Allan were very much in love and inseparable. During the height of their fashion career, the Arbus’ would be seen scurrying around the studio almost in a choreographed dance. Other times the two of them would both hide under the dark cloth and peer through the ground glass. Most people thought that they were sometimes brother and sister.

The Arbus’ became very good friends with Alex and Anne Eliot. In the early years of their marriage, Alex regularly proclaimed his love for Diane and proposed that the two couples should share everything. Alex and Diane actually had an open affair, which Diane engaged without remorse and didn’t hide. Patricia concluded that Diane’s affair was simply a method for Diane to explore her feelings and continue her escape from the Nemerov’s emotionally void apartment (Bosworth, 55).

Diane’s photographic training started almost immediately with their marriage. Allan joined the Army, and was trained as a photographer. Surprisingly, his military training was provided in New York, which enabled Allan and Diane to live together. So, he would teach her the things that he learned every day. After the Army shipped Allan to the Pacific Theater, Diane continued photographing. She moved back to the Nemerov apartment, and she set up a darkroom in the bathroom. A friend gave her a large format press camera. However, the flash scared her, so she went back to a 35-millimeter camera. Around the house, she almost always had a camera around her neck. Diane’s younger sister Renee believed that the shy Diane appeared to use her camera as protection or a weapon against the Nemerov atmosphere.

Early in their fashion career, Diane was the calming force with the models. This atmosphere provided the Arbus Studio with an advantage that made it easier for them to get models. The fashion industry has a long history of brutality towards models, and the trend continues today. Just a few episodes of America’s Top Model will clearly display the harsh treatment that the models receive. Patricia Bosworth was one of the early Arbus models. She claims that Diane was truly disarming and had the ability to calm a normally tense situation. Another time, there was a model that arrived after being beaten by her husband. Somehow, Diane actually got her model ready to work quickly after the traumatic event. Her friend Stewart Stern said, “ When you were talking with her [Diane], she made you feel as if you were the most important person in the world (Bosworth, X).”

Diane’s photographic accomplishments started in 1959. According to Bosworth, changes in her family and job were key motivations for the pursuit of artistic photography. Her job was probably the significant factor. Allan and Diane worked successfully together for years. However, both of them grew disillusioned with the business. Allan always wanted to be an actor. However, he also recognized the financial requirements of raising a family. He had photography skills, and used them to pay the bills. So, he put aside his dream and drudged through the fashion photography business. Today, this statement sounds ridiculous. Almost any photographer would love to have a thriving fashion business in midtown Manhattan. However, Allan saw it as the only way to make a living without having to work in the family store where they could have lived as millionaires. As their business became profitable, Allan started to explore ways to satisfy his artistic pursuits through acting classes. All of his classmates were younger, which was a source of concern for Diane. She feared that the acting would pull Allan away from her. In fact, Allan met a younger woman in the class and they became intimate. While Diane was open about her ongoing infidelities, accepting Allan’s was more difficult and further divided the once intimate couple.

About the time that Allan was studying acting, Diane joined a workshop with Alexey Bordovitch. The classes gave her photographic insights far beyond her current awareness. However, Bordovitch said something that struck a nerve in Diane. He said, “The life of a commercial photographer is like the life of a butterfly. Very seldom can a photographer be productive for more than 8 years (Bosworth, 123).” Hearing this, Diane realized that she’d been in the fashion business much longer than 8 years. So, she quit the fashion business and stopped working with Allan. Allan continued the business without Diane, but without a partnership their success declined.

Diane used this opportunity to aggressively pursue her photography. It might have been done for the therapeutic nature or an avenue to expend energy. It was also possible that Diane enjoyed her new relationship with the photographer Lisette Model who was an ideal combination of photography tutorials, philosophy and friendship. If you look at Diane's street photography prior to Model, the pictures are consistent with most amateur work. There is an example of her early 35mm work that shows a boy in 1956. He is dressed in a fedora, and almost looks like a little man. We see beginnings of Diane's development of a picture that is "somewhat different." However, we also see the amateur traits lingering. You can tell that the picture was shot on the street, but there just isn't enough of the environment to give the view enough data about the man-boy. It was Model who got Diane to put an edge in her photographs. When asked, Diane told Model that she wanted to display what was evil. Although Diane's daughter Doon believed the desired perspective was forbidden instead of evil (Bosworth, 130).

Diane made another profound change with her camera. Previously, she had been using a Leica, which is a 35-millimeter camera. When used with the popular films, the pictures often exhibit a significant amount of grain. The visual perspective is that the grain slightly obscures the image. To Diane, grain was another version of a mask and undesirable. So she switched to a rollei medium format camera that offered two advantages. The camera provided sharper prints and less grain. In following her thread on realty, I believe that Diane wanted to remove any barrier that separating the film from the soul of her subject. In addition, the camera also had the ergonomic location advantage of being held at waist level. So, Diane was able to maintain a better connection with her subjects. This could be a incredible factor when photographing amateur subjects. Many of my amateur models often complain that they don't know what to do once I put the camera up to my eye. Frankly, I find a camera very threatening to me in similar situations. I was at a professional photo shoot and observed this behavior with one of the models. As the photographer would joke and work with the models, you could see their relaxed warm responses. They looked wonderfully natural. When he put his eye to the ground glass, Many of the models pulled a pose that they thought was desired. At that moment, I could almost hear Diane's voice in my head--She was screaming for the natural look. One of her early successful medium format pictures was the boy with a toy grenade. The "grain less" picture set the mood for a wonderfully warm day in New York's Central Park. You can almost hear the lovers smooching and the kids playing. Then, Diane shocks the reader with this boy holding a toy grenade. The square format put him at the center of the picture and the sharpness provided the grotesque detail in his face. The picture could have had a profound political significance during the Vietnam War or during the terrorist activity of the gulf war.

In 1959, she separated from Allan and moved to a small apartment. Allan pursued his acting career in Hollywood, and is probably best known for his television role as Dr Sidney Friedman in the long running series of MASH. While Diane’s photography was previously done to satisfy her curiosity and artistic interest, she still had bills to pay and daughters to rise. So to supplement the money that Allan sent, she sold photographs and text to magazines. The period from 1960 to 1970 were known as her “Magazine Years.” It started with an Esquire special on New York City, which was titled “The Vertical Journey: Six Movements of a Moment within the Heart of the City.” The article’s goal was to show a juxtaposition between the dramatic lifestyles in the City. At this time, Esquire was in the process of experimenting with exiting alternatives to the growing competition for advertising dollars as the early 60's was also the genesis of television. So, Diane's edgy approach was a good fit during the 60's.

It was also that time that she became more daring. She learned a process to capture pictures with realism. Patricia Bosworth stated that Diane's start was in Hubert’s Museum, which was a flea circus in the basement of one of 42nd Street’s Penny Arcade. As she became a regular, many of the performers became accustomed to her presence and she soon worked her way behind the scenes. It was here that she met “The Jungle Creep,” and the “Russian midget.” Through her newly developed persistent process, she also gained access to the dressing rooms of Club 82, which was a venue for drag queens. Now, she had both an interest and methodology for photographing the underworld.

The Wade twins print is probably her most famous portrait. It was taken in 1967, when the girls where 7 years old. Arbus, in her search for something unique, learned about a Christmas party for twins and triplets. In the Arbus fashion, she got their mother to release the girls outside and Diane shot them on the sidewalk. Diane posed them so that they appeared to be joined at the hip. The green (Christmas color) dress appeared black as part of the black and white. I think that this print is important, as it is the first time that we see a successful modification of two girls into a trademark Arbus print. When the girl’s father saw the picture, he initially didn’t realize it was his daughters and was unhappy. Arbus had made his cute little daughters look like freaks. Later, people would sometimes be reluctant in sitting for Arbus, because of her reputation of distorting (she probably called it reality) her sitters. In a recent Washington Post article, they reported that the Wade twins print print sold for $500,000. After the twins heard about this price, they retrieved their copy from the family scrapbook and realized that their retirement was much further along financially. I told one of my art mentors about this investigation and the value of Diane’s prints. Surprisingly, he knew Diane. Then, he told me that Diane used to sell her prints on the street in Cambridge Mass. In a fashion befitting her appearance as a bag lady, she acquired a shopping cart and used to keep her supply of pictures. Immediately following this remark, he indicated that it was probably a good idea for him to rummage through his basement for some old prints.

She wasn’t rich, famous or widely acclaimed in her life. She did have a close group of supporters, friends and family. She received Guggenheim Fellow grants both in 1963 and 1966. She was invited to participate in the 1963 Kennedy inauguration, but spent the day photographing one of her freaks Uncle Sam) at Washington’s Union Train Station. Arbus taught photography at the Parsons School of Design in New York and Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Walker Evens tried to get her to join faculty at Yale University, but she refused. In addition to her photographic work, Ms Arbus legacy continues with her daughters Doon and Amy.

The childhood observations, artistic training and professional forces had a significant effect on Diane’s ability to slew her camera at the right subject and right time. Allan Arbus repeatedly stated early in her career that Diane was the key talent in the Diane and Allan Arbus Photography Studio. Maybe the training came from her formative years in school or the store, the stylists’ work that she did with her studio, or the portfolio reviews that she did with almost every major magazine in New York City. Her collaborators and teachers are very recognized in the art world, and the list is impressive: Stanley Kubric, Berenice Abbott, Andy Warhol, Lisette Model, and Richard Avedon. Like Alice in Wonderland, she was always interested in exploring. She and her husband would traipse up to Harlem for a night of music and dancing. They regularly threw dinner parties that were attended by musicians, artists and actors. Throughout these encounters, Diane was always seeking to understand the real person.

Diane also knew the photography craft. She first started working in the darkroom in 1941, and continued throughout much of her commercial years. She formally studied photography. It took almost 20 years of training before Diane really started her own photographic career.

Diane had a relatively short photographic career. During that time, she made profound personal and professional changes. Towards the end of her career, she lost her long bout with depression. In July 1971, Arbus ended her own life in Greenwich Village, at the age of 48 by ingesting a large quantity of barbiturates and then cutting open her wrists. She was provided with a small funeral that was primarily attended by family.

Due to their mother’s suicide, it is very reasonable that Amy and Doon would guard their mother’s privacy by limiting the amount of information about her. When she died, only a small number of her photographs were widely distributed. Historians described Diane's magazine work as a significant influence on the art world. I don’t agree with this position. These were simply her magazine years. It wasn’t until her death that she got a significant public recognition. The publication of Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph in 1972 along with a posthumous display at the Museum of Modern Art started her cult status. I believe that these two events popularized Diane towards the masses and affected the art community.

Everything was fair game for Diane’s camera. Her curiosity and exploration has led to a whole new type of photography. The bedrooms of movie stars (Ozzie & Harriet, Mae West), Shunned (Tokyo Rose), the dead, the disabled, the retarded, nudists, sex scenes, the different and the exciting people could now be photographed. It is possible that Arbus may have been a product of the beatnik and hippie movement. Certainly, American's were more receptive to the bold new pictures that she provided in the 60's. In addition, Diane got quite a bit of support from her publisher and friend Marvin Israel. However, she was the lone hunter that stalked the streets and pursued the subjects. She was a leader who brought the reality of the photography business into mainstream publications such as Esquire. Today, people are free to show the world almost anything and we see lots of horrific, sexy, disturbing, eye-catching pictures. But, a friend once remarked about a key factor for recognizing greatness--be the first, "She was the first."

by

Lloyd Greene

“For me, the subject of the picture is always more important than the picture.”

" Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats."

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know."

"What I'm trying to describe is that it's impossible to get out of your skin into somebody else's.... That somebody else's tragedy is not the same as your own."

"I never have taken a picture I've intended. They're always better or worse."

"My favorite thing is to go where I have never gone."

“The thing that’s important to know is that you never know. You’re always sort of feeling your way.”

“One thing that struck me early is that you don’t put into a photograph what’s going to come out. Or, vice versa, what comes out is not what you put in.”

My Favorite Quote from Allan Arbus (as Dr Sidney Friedman from MASH): to the 4077 MASH, “Ladies and Gentlemen, take my advice, pull down your pants and slide on the ice.”

Arbus, Diane, An Aperture Monograph, Aperture Foundation, 1971.

"Arbus Reconsidered," The New York Times;

<http://query.nytimes.com>

Bosworth, Patricia, Diane Arbus, A Biography: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.

“.diane arbus. An Unofficial Website”;
< http://www.dianearbus.net/infocus.htm>.

“ Diane Arbus (1923-1971)”; Profotos.com.
<http://www.profotos.com/education/referencedesk/masters/masters/dianearbus/dianearbus.shtml>.

“Diane Arbus' Identical Twins”; Morning Edition, National Public Radio, 2002
< http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/twins/>.

“Diane Arbus: Revealed And Rediscovered”; Frank Van Riper on Photography. Washington Post.Com.
< http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/essays/vanRiper/030925.htm>.

“Fur”; Ryan Stewart, Cinematical.com, 10 Nov 2006.
<http://www.cinematical.com/2006/11/10/review-fur-an-imaginary-portrait-of-diane-arbus/>.

“Israel, Marvin, Diane Arbus: Magazine Work, Aperture Foundation, 1992.
Sidney Freedman: Answers.com, ”
< http://www.answers.com/topic/sidney-freedman>.

"Wrestling with Dian Arbus, " Guardian Unlimited;

<http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,11710,1586249,00.html>