As far as portrait photography goes, I think Diane Arbus' approach is the most fascinating. Arbus took photographs of predominately marginal people. Where most portrait photographers take photographs of beautiful people, Arbus took photo's of transvestites, dwarfs, giants and circus 'freaks'. Her work has been seen as somewhat controversial and Norman Mailer was quoted in 1971 as saying "Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child."
Talking of hand grenades, Child With Toy Hand Grenade In Central Park, N.Y.C. is one of my favourite works by Arbus. This picture says a lot to me about innocence and war. Whether this was a political statement by Arbus is unclear. Apparently while taking this photo, Arbus had asked the boy to stand there while she moved around him looking for the right angle. The boy became impatient and shouted at her to "Take the picture already!"
Upon viewing the contact sheet for the picture, you can see Arbus experimented quite a lot before capturing this iconic image. The composition eventually fell into place for her and she came away with a great shot. It shows that it helps to be patient and just keep shooting until you get the results. I feel that the picture wouldn't have had the same message if the child's frustrations hadn't some to fruition.
Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967 is a very subtle photograph that seemingly captures twin sisters Cathleen and Colleen Wade. According to Arbus' biography, the image has been said to sum up Arbus' vision. It seems to be a question of identity which is something that Arbus seems to address in many of her works. It's a case of "Who am I, Who are you?" The image of the twin girls has since been recreated many times over the years. Most notably in Stanley Kubrick's film of Stephen King's The Shining.
I think its the simplicity of this image that makes it so fascinating. There's no distracting backgrounds so your focus is entirely on the girls.
Arbus was always worried that she would be remembered only as "The photographer of freaks" which is probably what people do indeed think. Unfortunately it's the images of 'freaks' that stand out the most from her large body of work.
A Jewish Giant at Home with His Parents in The Bronx, N.Y. 1970 shows the 'Jewish Giant' Eddie Carmel standing in the living room. Arbus said "You know how every mother has nightmares when she's pregnant that her baby will be born a monster?... I think I got that in the mother's face."
Compositionally, this is another simple shot. I have seen so many pictures of families standing around in living rooms but what makes this image so iconic is the 'giant' who catches the eye immediately. You are then swiftly drawn across to the parents and are greeted by that look of rejection on the face of the mother. The whole photo seems to be burned or darkened around the corners which kind of frame the image quite nicely. This keeps you focused on the central elements. I don't feel that this picture is technically amazing or set up in any specific way. It just shows that the subject matter makes or breaks a photo.
"I do feel I have some slight corner on something about the quality of things. I mean it's very subtle and a little embarrassing to me, but I really believe there are things which nobody would see unless I photographed them." - Diane Arbus
No comments:
Post a Comment