Description
Diane Arbus: In the Beginning offers a landmark study of the early work of one of the twentieth century’s most provocative and influential photographers. Focusing on the first seven years of her career, from 1956 to 1962, this volume presents over 100 photographs, the majority of which have never before been published.
Drawn from the Metropolitan Museum’s Diane Arbus Archive – acquired in 2007 from her daughters, Doon and Amy Arbus – the book reveals the genesis of her idiosyncratic style and approach that would come to define her work.
Set largely in New York City, Arbus’s subjects include children, eccentrics, couples, circus performers, female impersonators, and Fifth Avenue pedestrians. These images capture a rare intimacy and inventiveness, highlighting her unique ability to reveal both the ordinary and the extraordinary in everyday life.
The book demonstrates how Arbus honed her photographic eye during this formative period, developing a voice that would come to influence generations of artists.
Lavishly illustrated, the volume provides a deep exploration of Arbus’s early years through photographs, negatives, appointment books, notebooks, and correspondence. These materials offer unprecedented insight into her working process and the evolution of her distinctive style, from her initial experiments to fully realized compositions.
With contextual essays and careful scholarship, Diane Arbus: In the Beginning is essential for understanding the origins of Arbus’s remarkable career. It offers readers a rare opportunity to trace the development of a photographer whose intimate and often unsettling vision continues to captivate audiences around the world.
