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Diane Arbus's unsettling photographs of dwarves and twins, transvestites and giants, both polarized and inspired, and her work had already become legendary when she committed suicide in 1971. This groundbreaking biography examines the private life behind Arbus's controversial art. The book deals with Arbus's pampered Manhattan childhood, her passionate marriage to Allan Arbus, their work together as fashion photographers, the emotional upheaval surrounding the end of their marriage, and the radical, liberating, and ultimately tragic turn Arbus's art took during the 1960s when she was so richly productive. This edition includes a new afterword by Patricia Bosworth that covers the phenomenon of Arbus since her death, the latest Arbus scholarship, and a view of the first major retrospective of Arbus's work as well as notes on the forthcoming motion picture based on her story. Bosworth's engrossing book is a portrait of a woman who drastically altered our sense of what is permissible in photography.
Anonymous
Posted August 15, 2011
Why choose to write about an artist you don't seem to like? While dense with material about her life, there are early overtones of anti-semeticism in discussion of her family and a sense that Bosworth is a distant viewer, reportage.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This book is packed with details that reveal very little about its subject. It's the superficial saga of her life, seeming to cover everything, but just scratching the surface. I knew very little about Ms Arbus before reading it. Now I know where all she lived and what all she did, but not why she did anything. I didn't like the woman presented in this book. I didn't feel sorry for her, or admire her, or understand her, or relate to her at all. Furthermore, I couldn't even come to appreciate her work, as not one of her photographs was shown in this book. So, was she a tortured, frustrated, self-important, obsessive, hedonistic, boring woman who killed herself so she wouldn't have to face growing up and getting old. This book made me want to read a better book to find out.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 5, 2000
This selection is very well written and a smooth read. It offers insight into the psyche of a wonderful and tortured artist while providing a fascinating glimpse into the New York art world of the 1950's. Never a dull moment.
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Overview
Diane Arbus's unsettling photographs of dwarves and twins, transvestites and giants, both polarized and inspired, and her work had already become legendary when she committed suicide in 1971. This groundbreaking biography examines the private life behind Arbus's controversial art. The book deals with Arbus's pampered Manhattan childhood, her passionate marriage to Allan Arbus, their work together as fashion photographers, the emotional upheaval surrounding the end of their marriage, and the radical, liberating, ...