The Met and Diane Arbus

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City had a photography exhibit going on last week. Serendipitously, I found myself there. And scoped it out, Diane Arbus had her work featured. Her work centers around people, and those that are outside the mainstream of society for whatever reason. I am attaching a New Yorker article about her that features some of her photographs, so check it out for more information about her, but she said something interesting about her bold approach to photograph these people.

"There are things which nobody would see unless I photographed them."(Diane Arbus)

Spectacular photos of sunsets or forests are awesome to see, but most people would find them pleasing to look at, and have had the chance to seek that pleasure out for themselves. But Arbus's photographs reveal a part of life in New York City that would be left unacknowledged and forgotten. 

It was cool to see photos set in NYC while being there. The photo below was my favorite one there.

Taxicab driver at the wheel with two passengers, N.Y.C. 1956 (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/23/diane-arbus-at-the-met-breuer)

 

 

 

In the New Yorker article, Claudia Roth Pierpont discusses the context in which Arbus decided to pursue photography, and her journey within it. Ultimately, Arbus committed suicide. Pierpont writes:

Rightly or wrongly, many have linked her death to the nature of her work—some of her later photographs, harrowingly beautiful, were taken on the grounds of mental institutions—as though she had paid a price for pursuing forbidden knowledge."

This is very interesting, and a sentiment I think many people can understand, if not empathize with. It is hard to undertake a project without getting caught up in the journey. And though a level of objectivity might be achieved from the success of isolating oneself from the journey, there is a profound piece missing from the overall outcome of the project. In other words, perhaps Arbus completely gave herself to her project, perhaps not - but I am guessing that a strong internal struggle existed on which side of the lens she felt she belonged.