ALPAY DEDEZADE, LUCY LE LIEVRE & VANESSA SILVA

Diane Arbus

Influences

Studied under Berenice Abbott & Lisette Model

“It was my teacher Lisette Model, who finally made it clear to me that the more specific you are, the more general it’ll be.”

What is she known for?

Known for her square format photographs

of marginalised individuals in society.

“You see someone on the street and essentially what you notice about

them is their flaw”

Methods, techniques & teachings

1. Go places you have never been 2. Camera is a license to enter the lives

of others 3. Realize you can never understand

the world from your subjects eyes 4. Create specific photographs

Methods, techniques & teachings

Adore your subjects – should have an affinity for those they are photographing – i.e. “freaks”

Gain inspiration from reading

Utilizing textures to add meaning – e.g. focal lengths, different apertures, lighting etc

Take bad photos!

Methods, techniques & teachings

1.Sometimes your best photos aren’t immediately apparent (to you)

2.Don’t arrange others, arrange yourself – Most interesting photos are

generally ones that aren’t posed

3.Get over the fear of photography by getting to know your subjects - by

talking with the subjects it allows the photographer to overcome the

fear with taking personal shots and feel more comfortable

4.Subjects are more important than the pictures – She considered the

people to be more important than the photograph itself, as humans

are three-dimensional and evoked a more ‘holy feeling’ in her

A Photograph’s Meaning

Many of her photographs appear to be straight forward on the surface but as we look and begin to read it, underlying meanings are brought

to the surface. For example Identical Twins (1967) this photograph that we have already seen in the reading ‘The Photograph’.

Photographer within the photograph

An example of this is ‘A Family on Their Law One Sunday in Westchester’ (1969). Arbus was in a state of depression at the time this

photograph was taken which comes through in the photograph.

Examples

Russian midget friends in a living room on 100th St., N.Y.C. (1963)

Examples

Teenage Couple on Hudson Street, N.Y.C., (1963)