(NYC, 1923 – NYC 1971)
Diane Nemerov He is born in a wealthy Jewish family in New York. She is the sister of the poet Howard Nemerov. When he was 14 years old, he began his relationship with Allan Arbus, with whom he married at the age of 18. In the forties, the marriage is dedicated to the photography of fashions in magazines like Esquire, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. From 1955 to 1957, Diane Arbus took classes with the Austrian photographer Lisette Model, who exerts a great influence. At that time, too, he divorced Allan. The sixties was the most productive. Travel through the dangerous neighborhoods of New York to select the characters he portrays, including dwarves, nudists and prostitutes. In 1967 he made the exhibition «New Documents», which he made known to the majority public. He continues to work for important magazines portraying celebrities such as Norman Mailer, Mae West and Jorge Luis Borges. In 1971, after a long depression, Diane Arbus committed suicide. A year later her work is selected to participate in the Venice Biennale, being the first American photographer to be selected, and the MoMA of New York organizes its first major retrospective.
Influenced by Model and the movie Freaks (Stop of Monsters or Phenomena, in Spanish) by Tod Browning, Diane Arbus chose marginal people for her photographs: twins, mentally ill, giants, dysfunctional families, circus phenomena, etc. The characters looked directly at the camera, which makes the flash reveal its flaws. His intention was to produce “fear and shame” in the spectator. Pioneered the fill flash (day flash). Diane’s picture represents the normal as monstrous: when she photographs pain, she finds it in normal people. It causes the supposedly normal people to appear as abnormal. Break the composition, place the character in the center. His gaze is always direct, with tension and strength. For her, there is no decisive moment, she works in a continuous temporal space and forces the portrayed to be aware that they are being portrayed. Look for a new look, going from boredom to fascination.
Some links
Some of her Photos
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