Female Impersonator holding long gloves, Hempstead, L.I. 1959, Diane Arbus. All photographs courtesy of the artist, The Met Breuer, and Doon and Amy Arbus.
No photographer managed to disrupt the normal and humanize the fringes of society with as much elegance and poise as Diane Arbus. Her photographs of two eerie identical twin girls, a disjointed boy holding toy grenades, and a naked, seemingly-post-coital dwarf are still unabashed masterpieces today, nearly half a century after they were taken. But diane arbus: in the beginning, her ongoing exhibition at the Met Breuer focuses less on her known images; more than two-thirds of the over 100 photographs on display have never been publicly shown before—new discoveries from earlier in her career.
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Jack Dracula at a bar, New London, Conn. 1961, Diane Arbus
The photographs on display show glimpses of the same subject matter and humanizing approach Arbus would cement in her later work. Even in her early days, the photographer sought to give society’s marginalized characters the attention and compassion any person deserves.
Installation view of diane arbus: in the beginning.
Perhaps the images' biggest differences from her later work are formal. Arbus was known for using a Rolleiflex camera, which produces square images and requires one to shoot from a lower angle, while the exhibition’s images were exclusively shot on rectangular 35mm cameras. Arbus also frequently used flash in her later works, a departure from the natural light prevalent in these works. “The way that light exists in these pictures, the way the sun and artificial light wrap around the figures, it softens them and there is a kind of intimacy,” explains Jeff Rosenheim, the curator of the Met Breuer’s Department of Photographs, to The Creators Project. “The flash in her later works adds an element that is a little harsh, a little cold, and very distinctive.”
Fire Eater at a carnival, Palisades Park, N.J. 1957, Diane Arbus
After her death in 1971, photographs found in her apartment were used in a retrospective exhibition at MoMA a year later. The images shown became the iconic images of Arbus that cemented her ensuing legacy. Years later, further excavation within her apartment led to the discovery of a box of photographs that had been stored in a previously inaccessible part of her darkroom, gifted to the Metropolitan Museum by the photographer’s daughters Doon and Amy Arbus.
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Beyond the never-before-seen nature of the works on display, in the beginning is also unique in its mode of presentation. There is no grid or series of grouped, hanging works here; each of the relatively small prints has been given its own enormous pillar to be viewed on. “I wanted people to discover the pictures one on one, just like Arbus did when she found her subjects,” Rosenheim explains. “Most of the pictures are of individuals who are returning the gaze of the photographer and so when you enter the space and wander through it, you are encountering individuals like she did on the streets of the city.”
Woman with white gloves and a pocket book, N.Y.C. 1956, Diane Arbus
The exhibition is also particularly nonlinear, with each row of pillars inviting the viewer to forge his or her own path through the space. “In my opinion, the exhibition activates the viewers. The viewer has to make his or her own decision on what he or she is going to look at, and that keeps them active instead passive. It also somewhat parallels or mirrors the experience of being a citizen on the streets of an urban metropolis like New York,” adds Rosenheim.
Kid in a hooded jacket aiming a gun N.Y.C. 1957, Diane Arbus
Man in hat, trunks, socks, and shoes, Coney Island, N.Y. 1960, Diane Arbus
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