ARBUS, DIANE

born March 14, 1923, New York, N.Y., U.S. died July 26, 1971, New York City ne Diane Nemerov American photographer, best known for her compelling portraits of the unusual, the fantastic, and the freakish. Diane Nemerov was the daughter of Gertrude Russek and David Nemerov, proprietors of a fur and women's clothing store. After attending the Ethical Culture School and the Fieldston School, she worked as a fashion artist in the family's store. At age 18 she married fellow employee Allan Arbus (divorced 1969); before separating, they worked collaboratively in commercial fashion photography for Harper's Bazaar, Show, Esquire, Glamour, The New York Times, and Vogue. After taking a short photography course with Berenice Abbott, Arbus met Lisette Model, an Austrian-born documentary photographer, and studied with her from 195860. With Model's encouragement Arbus gave up commercial work to concentrate on fine-art photography. In 1960 Esquire published Arbus's first photo-essay in which she effectively juxtaposed high life and squalor. Thereafter she made a living as a freelance photographer and photography instructor. Formal elements of Arbus's provocative later work include the use of a square format, which, among other effects, emphasizes the significance for her of the subject over the photograph's composition, and the use of flash lighting, which gives an added dimension of theatricality and surrealism. Her own evident intimacy with the extraordinary subjects of her photosincluding nudists, sideshow freaks, transvestites, the mentally or physically handicappedresulted in images that assumed the sympathy and collusion of the viewer and never failed to elicit strong response. She published Diane Arbus: Portfolio in 1971; not long thereafter she committed suicide. Additional reading Patricia Bosworth, Diane Arbus: A Biography (1984, reissued 1995); Doon Arbus and Marvin Israel (eds.), Diane Arbus, Magazine Work (1984, reissued 1992).