Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus (Nemerov; March 14, 1923 July 26, 1971) was an American photographer. She photographed a wide range of subjects including strippers, carnival performers, nudists, people with dwarfism, children, mothers, couples, elderly people, and middleclass families. She photographed her subjects in familiar settings: their homes, on the street, in the workplace, in the park. She is noted for expanding notions of acceptable subject matter and violates canons of the appropriate distance between photographer and subject. By befriending, not objectifying her subjects, she was able to capture in her work a rare psychological In his 2003 New York Times Magazine article, Arbus Reconsidered, Arthur Lubow states, She was fascinated by people who were visibly creating their own identitiescrossdressers, nudists, sideshow performers, tattooed men, the nouveaux riches, the moviestar fansand by those who were trapped in a uniform that no longer provided any security or comfor