Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/09/14
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]In a message dated 9/14/03 7:39:00 AM, jbcollier@shaw.ca writes: << Hitherto unpublished photos and the contact sheet from the boy with toy grenade shoot are all I have had time to look at so far (those alone are worth more than the cover price). I haven't had time to read the article yet but it includes discussion of the current assertion that she was just an opportunist. >> - --------------------------------------------------- One of the points the article makes is that Arbus reacted against the fashion work she and her husband were doing. She wanted to find authenticity in her subjects. She discovered that folks who were battling abnormal physical differences between themselves and the rest of humanity didn't put up artificial facades of ego and class. She did her own printing and abhorred cropping. She was a purist in that sense. She was an activist photographer. She didn't wait around until a subject turned up. She chose and followed subjects to where they lived. That takes chutzpah and energy and single-mindedness and courage. I wonder how long someone can do that and not reach a point of exhaustion. She may have overinvested her life in seeking her objective of uncompromising reality through the camera. Note: The article makes clear that she was a first rate hand artist who could draw and paint very well indeed. She chose photography because it was in line with her addiction to find the core of personality in human beings. Maybe this is high-flown rhetoric, but it seems to me that she was a journalist on the beat of the soul. Is that an art? It's an open question. br - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html