{"data":{"id":"4285","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":4285,"topgoose_id":88,"tms_id":4285,"display_name":"Diane Arbus","sort_name":"Arbus Diane","display_date":"1923–1971","begin_date":"1923","end_date":"1971","biography":"\u003cp\u003eDiane Arbus’s photographs convey her unique vision of a time and a place— the period from approximately 1958 to 1971, primarily in and around New York— through intimate portraits of an array of strangers, acquaintances, and relations. Arbus wrote: “For me the subject of the picture is always more important than the picture. And more complicated.” The daughter of a wealthy New York family, Arbus became involved in photography with her husband, and the couple established a fashion photography business in 1946. She concurrently pursued her own photographs, but study with the groundbreaking photographer Lisette Model in the late 1950s precipitated a turning point in her work. In 1959 Arbus left her husband, moved to Greenwich Village, and began to concentrate on street photography of people she encountered throughout Manhattan; some of these images, taken with a 35mm camera, were published as photo essays in\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;Esquire \u003c/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eHarper’s Bazaar\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003emagazines. Arbus’s mature style developed after 1963, when she used a medium-format Rolleiflex camera, which resulted in a distinctive square format, and often a strobe.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/46368\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePatriotic Young M\u003c/em\u003e\u003cem\u003ean with a Flag,\nN.Y.C\u003c/em\u003e.\u003c/a\u003e, Arbus isolates a demonstrator at a\npro–Vietnam War rally in dramatic close-up,\nthe harsh flash capturing his contorted\nexpression, which, juxtaposed with a button\ndeclaring “I’m Proud,” offers a discomfiting\nvision of patriotism. In another distinctly\nAmerican portrait,\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/9477\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eA family on their lawn one\nSunday in Westchester, N.Y\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e presents a\nsuburban family on their lawn; “The parents,”\nArbus wrote, “seem to be dreaming the\nchild and the child seems to be inventing\nthem.” Although she worked for just over a\ndecade (she committed suicide in 1971),\nArbus produced some of the most searing\nimages in the pantheon of photography.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":false,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500012758","wikidata_id":"Q234608","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:28:36.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-09T07:01:04.975-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/4285/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/4285/exhibitions"}}}}