Re: [Leica] eggleston,now Arbus

[John Collier <jbcollier@home.com>]

I sometimes feel very uncomfortable with photography of mentally challenged
or ill people. My adopted sister has foetal alcohol syndrome and, as a
result, I grew up surrounded by mentally challenged people of various kinds
and I am very sensitive to how they are portrayed. They are, by and large,
delightful people just like you and me; but, the camera tends to distort and
portray them in ways that are not reflected in reality. Diane Arbus is a
special case though. I do not think we are seeing her view of "disturbing"
people but rather a view of her disturbed self. We, though her work, watch
her spiral down on her inward journey to death. She empathises with the
strange and unusual, gradually throwing off photographic conventions. The
space between her and the subject disappears. Those last photos of people
dancing in masks and sheets is like the dance of death.

John Collier

> From: RGKEG@aol.com
> Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 16:30:11 EST
> Subject: [Leica] eggleston, etc.... Now for a photographer I could never stand
> 
> I am new to this list, and ready to duck...but Diane Arbus deserves my pass
> the airplane bag (you know the one I mean) award.
> 
> She really taught me that you need to find the unfortunate, "freakish"
> (another reason I could never stand her), and outcasts of society in order to
> find our own, (and their) humanity.
> 
> I found her very little other than exploitive.