Diana Arbus interview at Almanac Magazine
Photography is becoming more and more important to me but the world of serious work out there by past masters, luminaries and legends is all too overwhelming. But a name that often that gets mentioned amongst the best is Diane Arbus, and today I heard her voice for the first time.
Presented by Almanac magazine is a recording at a student lecture in 1970, a year before her suicide and at the height of her career.
Arbus was almost as much of a curiosity as the subjects from which her work is best known. Fascinated with the overlooked and underappreciated sub-cultures in the world, her fine art photographs are as remarkable to look at now as they were when they were first presented in the 1960s.
I was never fortunate enough to see the enormous exhibit at the SF MOMA a few years back, but produced in conjunction with the show was a phenomenally thorough book, “Diane Arbus Revelations” which I have the pleasure to own.
The story goes that after her death, her entire estate was closed off to public view for over thirty years. Not a peep, not a reprint, not a word. But after years of seclusion, her daughter Doon Arbus released all her mother’s work. All her old prints, contact sheets, negatives, diaries. Everything. And this book does a fantastic job of presenting the complete works of this complex artist.
Listening to her voice, though, gave me insight into an entirely more human person. Her voice giggles and lilts its way through anecdotes and stories as that of a school girl. I feel that much closer to knowing this person and I think that it can inevitably help me understand her work and her motivations that much clearer.
