January 17, 2022

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22 thoughts on “Masters of photography – Diane Arbus (documentary, 1972)”

  • hurdygurdyguy1
    November 30, 2020 at 19:36
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    I found myself skipping over the interviews (Lisette Model, Marvin Israel etc) and preferring the audio over her pictures, Diane's words are much more interesting …

  • Jim Rader
    November 30, 2020 at 19:36
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    although the photos will haunt and shock for all time, i find their narrative tinge frustrating as i have to make up the bulk of a story; it's like seeing one intriguing publicity still for a never-released film or a book cover photo w/o the book.

  • CurtisDunsdon
    November 30, 2020 at 19:36
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    I really heard 2 parts to Diane's early artist experience that clearly annotated my own… Diane avoiding the obvious and easily "terrific" (or an easy talented route). Diane said: 'I wasn't a child with tremendous yearnings I didn't worship heroes I didn't long to play the piano or anything. I did paint but I hated painting and I quit right after high school because I was continually told how terrific I was. It was like self-expression time and I was in a private school and a tendency was to say what would you like to do and then you did something and they said "how terrific" it made me feel shaky. I remember I hated the smell of the paint and the noise it would make when I put my brush to the paper sometimes I would not really look but just listened to this horrible sort of squish squish-squish I didn't want to be told I was terrific! I had a sense that if I was so terrific at it it wasn't worth doing. I like to put things up around my bed all the time pictures of mine that I like and other things and I change it every month or so there's some funny subliminal thing that happens. It isn't just looking at it it's looking at it when you're not looking at it it really begins to act on you in a funny way. I suppose a lot of these observations are bound to be after the fact I mean they're nothing you can do to yourself to get yourself to work. You can't make yourself work by putting up something beautiful on the wall or by knowing yourself. Very often knowing yourself isn't really gonna lead you anywhere sometimes it's gonna leave you kind of blank like Here I am there's a me I've got a history, I've got things that are mysterious to me in the world and I've got things that bug me in the world but there are moments when all that doesn't seem to avail'

  • Juan Victor
    November 30, 2020 at 19:36
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    Omg, if someone wants to be like Arbus, this person will have to be cold hearted in order to surpass the feeling when shooting in a moment of desperation! Even herself didn't handle it

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