Untitled (7) by Diane Arbus

~ JezzieG

Untitled (7)
1970-71
Documentary Photography
Gelatin Silver Print
Collection of Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein

“Untitled (7)” is a somber, mysterious image depicting severely disabled patients out on a walk dressed in their Halloween masks. Arbus makes strong use of the camera’s flash during this walk beneath dark skies and moonlight taking the scene beyond the usual images created by Arbus. The patients are supposed to be in a safer place but the location and photographic techniques create a different light. Ethically challenging due to the subjects of this series of photographs not having to give the same level of permission as her other subjects did as the institution gave permission. These images were never intended for the larger body of Arbus’s oeuvre as it seems exploitative which was never her objective as an artist, Arbus normally used descriptive titles for her work that she wished to be shown after her death. Her daughter, Doon, titled it “Untitled”

Diane Arbus 1923-1971

Diane Arbus
Straight Photography, Street Photography, Documentary Photography, Modern Photography, Identity Art and Identity Politics
Born: 14 March 1923, New York, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 26 July 1971, New York, USA

Arbus was a photographer who photographed a wide range of subjects during her career including strippers, carnival performers, children, mothers, couples, elderly people, and families. Arbus is noted for expanding the concepts of acceptable subject matter and not objectifying her subjects so as to capture them with a rare psychological intensity

Published by JezzieG

I am a freelance writer and poet and started writing after raising my two boys as a way of discovering just who Jez is. That is still very much an ongoing project but the journey so far has introduced me to many wonderful friends and fellow writers through an ever-growing love of poetry.