Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/08/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> Ms. Diane Arbus' work makes me uncomfortable and I think that's exactly her point. Her point wasn't that you should feel uncomfortable. Her point was that we're all stuck in our own imperfect skin, and there are lots of things each of us can not get away from. > This contact sheet shows how she worked http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbs1usPOL71qaihw2o1_1280.jpg The chosen frame is definitely the strongest one, but would I have chosen it? Not so sure... It's the 8th frame... The capacity to self-edit well is rare in photographers; Arbus was superb at it. She was also amazing at making things look how she wanted them to seem. This: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/11/AR2005051102052.html is an interesting take on how Arbus was capable of editing and presenting things as she saw them; the twins' father comments that the famous Arbus photo looks unlike all the other photos they have of his daughters. The comments from the by-then 50-year-old "grenade boy" are telling and interesting. And whatever you think of Mike Johnston this: http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com.au/2006/03/top-ten-number-8.html is a great piece of writing, and provides valuable commentary about Arbus and the ongoing popularity of her vision despite her being among the most analysed and discussed photographers of the 20th century. All photography projects some of the photographer onto the subject. It's as simple as selecting when to press the shutter by which we choose what to show, good, bad or indifferent. There is nothing more or less exploitative about pointing out that a seven-year-old can look crazy than there is in trying to make him or her look "good" to get paid. The print I saw of the grenade boy not only had an obvious and not very well spotted dust mark, but had some clear, pretty poor dodging around the tip of the boy's clothing strap that had fallen off his left shoulder. It was a late print by Arbus on air-dried, glossy, very cold tone paper (maybe Oriental?) that looked like it might have been developed in something like Defender coldtone developer. It also had very funky asymmetrical messy borders. Marty