As you know, people make history, and photographers capture it. Gloss, glamor, creative sophistication are characteristic of a true master who is looking for his own way in photographing. Diana Arbus is one of the most famous personalities, who is popular in her time around the world. The creativity of an American of Russian-Jewish origin, who has gone to another world in the halo of her fame, is still disputed and is the subject of discussions in the best secular and Western cultural institutions.
Who is D. Arbus
The mystery woman for many generations did not part with her camera for almost a minute. She was interested in the world around her, the people living in it, her feelings, actions and thoughts she conveyed in her photographs. The works of Diana Arbus tell about unusual people belonging to different subcultures.
The skill of the woman has reached perfection, has acquired its refined style and completely rejected the glamor, the simulated gloss of the United States after the war. Many are fascinated by the independent and strong Diana Arbus. The biography of the photographer is full of various events, happy and tragic.
Birth
The future star of photography was born into a simple Jewish family in 1923. The Nemerovs were emigrants from cold Russia, among many other people who had fled the country. They found their permanent refuge in the New York quarter, where Diana's grandfather, who had arrived earlier with his Russian lover, had already lived, contrary to the wishes of relatives.
Parents have never been poor. In the United States, they opened their own business and became the owners of a shop selling fur goods. The economy and doing business took up the free time of the parents, who did not have the time to raise and educate their children. Therefore, the girl, brother and sister were brought up by governesses. Parents got worried and found babysitters for their children. Since childhood, Diana Arbus had a special way of thinking and a creative outlook on the world around her.
Growing up and first love
From an early age, the girl was distinguished by her disobedience and disobedience to the principles of her views. After graduating from the school of ethical culture, she entered the Fieldston school, from where her interest in art began. Diana Arbus looked at people in a special way. The personal life of a famous photographer has always interested fans.
Children's love overtook the girl at the age of 13, and she immediately rushed to inform her parents that she was marrying an acting student Alan Arbus. The prospect of a daughter's marriage did not please her father and mother, and they decided to leave for Cummington School. But all in vain, contrary to parental will, Diana in 1941 became a wife and took her husband's surname.
The failed young actor was forced to leave the cherished field and get a job to feed his young family. His position was far from art, he began to trade in neighboring shops.
Hobby
Two years later, the young man decided to study photography and got a job in army service courses. He began to attach his beloved to work, giving her a camera.
After some time, the couple took over the Allan and Diana Arbus fashion studio in the capital. Young people shared their professional obligations. The man took up the technical processing of photographs, the manifestation of pictures, printing.
The girl completely plunged into the life of art photography. So she began to head the studio. Successful joint work began to cause controversy. Each of them shared his point of view and defended it. Alan believed that the work should be based on the trend of fashionable photographs at that time, their color, angle, and hard lighting. Diana Arbus, whose photos were recognized as real and alive, began to look for interesting ideas filled with various content.
The gap that influenced the work of Arbus Diana
A few months later, the routine and gray monotonous life of the studio became boring for a young woman. Advertising fashion trends and other areas did not interest her. In the 60s, husband and wife decided to close their brainchild. After two years, they parted forever.
For Diana, months of searching for her place in the field of photographs stretched. After meeting with Lisette Model, they began to get involved in a new direction. A twist in creative destiny was outlined in the life of the future master. It was at that time that Diana Arbus found her style in art, which still excites the feelings of many generations.
She wandered the streets of the night city, looked at the everyday life of people in their professional activities, watched children running through puddles, feeding pigeons. The life of ordinary Americans was interested in the master. So prostitutes, transvestites, freaks with anomalies of their development, nudists entered her creative life.
Diana did not like to build characters, as other photographers did. She shot them in everyday poses, did not ask to pose. Therefore, everything looks natural and simple in the photo. Saturation cannot be found in any of the works. The true world tried to show Diana Arbus. Photos of her works can now be seen in many galleries in the world.
The preparation of the angle, plot, background and arrangement of objects - everything was annoying and against its nature. She called the freaks “aristocrats,” since they passed the life exam at their birth and adulthood. Art critics quickly spotted a rising star. Someone admired her work, someone rejected completely. But there were no indifferent viewers.
Worldwide fame
In the 60s, works were presented in the halls of the New York Museum of Modern Art. Photos began to appear in prestigious magazines of that decade. Recognition as the best-known master of photography came to Diana once and for all.
But, like many creative people, Arbus began to attend thoughts of suicide on a creative Olympus. She decides to take a large dose of barbiturate, opening her veins at the same time. In addition, for many years she suffered from the effects of hepatitis, fell into depression, suffered from severe and prolonged headaches.
Suicide
The last years of her life, photographer Diana Arbus ended up with pills in apathy and discontent from her work. She was under pressure from frustration and gloom.
The departure from life was incomprehensible and strange to everyone, although it was assumed that the woman suffered from schizophrenia. She died on July 26, 1971, the woman was 48 years old. After her death, Diana Arbus became known for her work in America, Canada, Europe. She is devoted to many essays, books, a feature film was shot telling the biography of the photographer. Be sure every fan of her work should watch the movie "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diana Arbus" (2006).