Diane Arbus (57 page)

Diane and Allan Arbus found their forte in photography. They’ve known each other since their early teens, married young, and arrived at their chosen work only after sampling other careers. While Allan was working in advertising, he came into contact with fashion photographers and became a zealot. His enthusiasm converted Diane and they were soon planning, taking and printing pictures almost on a 24 hour a day basis. They began to specialize in fashions, established their own studio, and landed a large New York store account. They study their files of pictures constantly, seeking new design ideas and improvements. Working very slowly and carefully, they compose in the camera instead of relying largely on cropping and other mechanical photographic tricks. Result, a distinctive Arbus quality which includes elements of portraiture and fantasy.

A feature article that ran in
Glamour
magazine in 1947 shortly after Diane and Allan became partners in fashion photography.

Diane posing with her daughter Doon, who occasionally modeled for her parents.

Diane and Allan, from a 1951 article in
Glamour
entitled “I Love You Because…” Photograph by Frances McLaughlin-Gill.

Anne Dick and Alex Eliot, ca. 1940

Alex Eliot.

Jane Winslow Eliot.

Art director and painter Marvin Israel
(right)
with photographer Peter Beard at the International Center for Photography. Photograph by Orn R. Langelle.

Diane’s teacher, the photographer Lisette Model. David Vestal took this portrait in 1964.

Diane with an art student, Basha Poindexter. They had been part of an anti-Vietnam War demonstration which ended in Central Park.

Diane
(left)
teaching students at one of the small classes she sometimes organized.

Allan Arbus
(left)
and Mariclare Costello talking with Howard Nemerov at the opening of the “New Documents” show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1967. Diane is watching them. Photograph by George Cserna from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art.