Diane Arbus

Arbus was born in New York in 1923, and as a photographer, is best known for her iconic black and white images.

Some of Diane Arbus’s most memorable pieces of work are her images of children. The most famous probably being Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park. The image is both visually captivating and at the same time, quite eerie. The look on the boys face is almost crazed, his body and limbs are rigid, and the fact he is holding a toy grenade makes him seem almost dangerous.

 

What makes this image really interesting is that it is in fact only one of a series taken of the child. When viewed with the other images within the series, the child seems a lot less threatening, and more like he is only playing around. It was a skill of Arbus’s to be able to single out an image, and give it a whole new feel just by removing it from a series of other images.

I personally find Diane Arbus’s work really inspiring. I love her use of square format printing.

I also like that she pushed the boundaries of convention, but at the same time, treated her subjects with respect.

I almost feel like her work proves that no subject is really “out of bounds”, it’s all how you go about shooting it. Being obtrusive and barging in on peoples private lives will often yield poor results photographically, however if you treat people with respect, as you should, people will respond to you better and you’re more likely to get better images.