Remembering Diane Arbus
American photographer, Diane Arbus, was born in New York City on March 14, 1923 to David Nemerov and Gertrude Russek Nemerov, a Jewish couple who owned Russek’s, a famous Fifth Avenue department store.
Arbus is most known for her photographs of social deviants or “freaks.” “There’s a quality of legend about freaks,” Arbus said. “Like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle. Most people go through life dreading they’ll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They’ve already passed their test in life. They’re aristocrats.”
Iconic photography from The Baltimore Sun
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- Two ladies at the automat, N.Y.C. 1966 (Diane Arbus)
- Veteran with a flag, N.Y.C. 1971 (Diane Arbus)
- A young man in curlers at home on West 20th Street, N.Y.C, 1966. (Diane Arbus)
- Woman with a Veil on Fifth Avenue, N.Y.C. 1968. (Diane Arbus/The Baltimore Museum of Art: Gift of Elinor B. Cahn, Baltimore)
- Diane Arbus teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970. (Stephen Frank)
- “A Young Brooklyn family going on a Sunday outing, N.Y.C., 1966.” (Diane Arbus)
- “A Jewish giant at home with his parents in the Bronx, N.Y., 1970. (Diane Arbus)
- “Boy with a straw hat waiting to march in a pro-war parade, (Diane Arbus)
- A sword swallower is shown at a Maryland carnival in 1970. (AP Photo/Metropolitan Museum of Art, Diane Arbus)
- Child with Toy Hand Grenade, 1962 (Diane Arbus)
- Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967 (Diane Arbus)