Diane Arbus

Artist's Biography
Beginning in 1960, Arbus worked extensively as a photojournalist, her photos appearing in Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Harper's Bazaar and Sunday Times magazines, among others. Arbus' early work was created using 35mm cameras, but by the 1960s Arbus adopted the Rolleiflex medium format twin-lens reflex. Arbus also experimented with the use of flashes in daylight, allowing her to highlight and separate her subjects from the background. In 1963, Arbus received a Guggenheim fellow grant, allowing her to focus on her art. Arbus received a second Guggenheim grant in 1966. The Museum of Modern Art, in 1967, staged Arbus' first museum show as the New Documents show which included the work of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander. Arbus also taught photography at the Parsons School of Design in New York and Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her photographs depicting outsiders, such as tranvestites, dwarves, giants, prostitutes, and ordinary citizens in poses and settings conveying a disturbing uncanniness. In July 1971, Arbus ended her own life in Greenwich Village, at the age of 48.

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