Diane Arbus

I have been on a bit of a Diane Arbus kick lately, and thankfully the Orlando Public Library system has my medicine; hell, they even leave it on my doorstep. My exposure to Arbus came in the form of "Fur" with Robert Downey Jr. and Nicole Kidman, and I have been curious about her work since. My exploration into her body of work revealed an artist that found beauty in the taboo; on the fringe; and where most refused to look. More importantly, she found beauty in the every day; the dirty, the untouched, unglamoured reality of living and being true to one's passions, interests and desires. I know there's been claims that Arbus was exploitative, and an early embodiment of current individuals such as Harmony Korine. If that is the comparison, then the problem isn't the artist, it's the one offering the critique, because just like Korine, Arbus wished to strip away those taboos by forcing you to look; and using her notoriety to encourage the glance. The reality is, years spent photographing for fashion magazines was not her idea of beauty; it was not real and had no soul; but a drug-addled, broken-spirited model on the verge of collapse or a war hero nearly crippled by the weight of his choices were characters full of life, and begged for Arbus' lens. Not to mock, but to offer truth. Her name alone gave her access to the most powerful people in the Western World, and she embraced their cracks in the same light as she would the pride of a 75 year-old nudist.

Mia Farrow

Arts Critic John Gruen

Female Impersonators, Club 82, New York City, 1962

Which one is the real one?

Max Maxwell Landar, Uncle Sam

Tiny Tim has never been so handsome...

Little Richard

Winston Churchill

Mrs. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at his wake