Diane Arbus

    Diane Arbus was an American photographer known for her powerful pictures of society’s outsiders.  Diane was born in March 14, 1923 to a wealth Jewish family in New York City.  She was the daughter of Gertrude Russek and David Nemerov, who owned Russeks Fifth Avenue, a fur and women’s clothing store. After attending the Ethical Culture School and the Fieldston School, Diane worked as a fashion artist in her father’s store. Most of the pictures were black and white images created a feeling in the view that was sympathetic to the subjects and eerie.

    At the age of 18, Diane married to a photographer Allan Arbus, a fellow employee in her store.  Before separating in 1959, they worked together in commercial fashion photography for “Harper’s Bazaar”, “Show”, “Esquire”, “Glamour”, “The New York Times”, and “Vogue”.  They had two daughters, Doon and Amy.
Often she chose to photograph people on the margins of society: giants, midgets, drag queens, fat ladies, junkies, naturists, and the mentally challenged; she also photographed beauty contestants, twins, couples, children, families, and people wearing masks. She believed the subject of the picture is always more important than picture, and more complicated. (She told her students “For me, the subject of the pictures is important than the picture.  And more complicated.”) She published “Diane Arbus: Portfolio” in 1971, not long thereafter she committed suicide on July 26, 1971 from depression in her life.  Later, her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world including the Museums of Modern Art, New York.