Student’s Name:
Prof. Name:
HUM333: Photo and the Other
Date:
Diane Arbus and the others in her photos
The world of art is full of several labels. In an effort to reduce obscure individuals to a particular category some specific labels have been generally applied in the art world, whether for religious, territorial, ethnic, sexual or national. For an all-purpose rationale, these labels are not applied in order to single out, but are an effort to give an identity to the minorities who have long been singled-out and their groups are time and again unseen or under-represented. They have been conveniently labeled as the “other” and this has become a tradition for the art critics to find the other in the work of the artists. The notion of “the other” …show more content…
Her work has been criticized over and over again for the reason that it and disregards photographic conventions and even challenges the social norms for seeing and being seen, since it presents the viewer in the wary acts of looking. Diane Arbus has a very unique style of portraiture and she has maintained it all through her professional life and was one of those artists who never compromised on their uniqueness. Arbus's opus is on the subject of people staring and the people, who attract the stare and look intently, who capture the eye, and who turn out to be dubious and disputed metaphors by being seen, observed, photographed, and publicly exhibited. There have been polarized reactions to Arbus' work as a number of people are seduced to play a part in her bliss of looking, particularly at people (“the others”) who are noticeable even in a crowd (Arbus, 1972; Butler, 2004), while there are several who criticize the pictures as distressing, unfair, and pessimistic, but are powerless to escape similar enticement in spite of themselves (Sontag, …show more content…
In his right hand he holds a toy hand grenade imitation of an Mk 2 "Pineapple", his facial appearance is maniacal and he has shaped his left hand in a claw-like motion. Arbus made this photograph by making the boy stand while she kept on moving around him asserting that she was trying to get the right angle. His appearance conveys his frustration and annoyance with the entire effort; this has been revealed in the contact sheet of the shoot. The viewer can see as a happy child in the other pictures. The boy in the photograph is Colin Wood, son of Sidney Wood the tennis player. That representation of young Colin Wood has gained an iconic status for its peculiarity. It is very difficult not to look at the photo and be fascinated to it and deterred by it equally. There is an unsettling moreover an alarming sense that it is an omen of bad things to transpire. Wood recalls radically that he was not directed nevertheless the photo itself leaves an impression that Arbus was after something that she required the boy to give. She kept on taking the photos and then finally found it.
Prof. Name:
HUM333: Photo and the Other
Date:
Diane Arbus and the others in her photos
The world of art is full of several labels. In an effort to reduce obscure individuals to a particular category some specific labels have been generally applied in the art world, whether for religious, territorial, ethnic, sexual or national. For an all-purpose rationale, these labels are not applied in order to single out, but are an effort to give an identity to the minorities who have long been singled-out and their groups are time and again unseen or under-represented. They have been conveniently labeled as the “other” and this has become a tradition for the art critics to find the other in the work of the artists. The notion of “the other” …show more content…
Her work has been criticized over and over again for the reason that it and disregards photographic conventions and even challenges the social norms for seeing and being seen, since it presents the viewer in the wary acts of looking. Diane Arbus has a very unique style of portraiture and she has maintained it all through her professional life and was one of those artists who never compromised on their uniqueness. Arbus's opus is on the subject of people staring and the people, who attract the stare and look intently, who capture the eye, and who turn out to be dubious and disputed metaphors by being seen, observed, photographed, and publicly exhibited. There have been polarized reactions to Arbus' work as a number of people are seduced to play a part in her bliss of looking, particularly at people (“the others”) who are noticeable even in a crowd (Arbus, 1972; Butler, 2004), while there are several who criticize the pictures as distressing, unfair, and pessimistic, but are powerless to escape similar enticement in spite of themselves (Sontag, …show more content…
In his right hand he holds a toy hand grenade imitation of an Mk 2 "Pineapple", his facial appearance is maniacal and he has shaped his left hand in a claw-like motion. Arbus made this photograph by making the boy stand while she kept on moving around him asserting that she was trying to get the right angle. His appearance conveys his frustration and annoyance with the entire effort; this has been revealed in the contact sheet of the shoot. The viewer can see as a happy child in the other pictures. The boy in the photograph is Colin Wood, son of Sidney Wood the tennis player. That representation of young Colin Wood has gained an iconic status for its peculiarity. It is very difficult not to look at the photo and be fascinated to it and deterred by it equally. There is an unsettling moreover an alarming sense that it is an omen of bad things to transpire. Wood recalls radically that he was not directed nevertheless the photo itself leaves an impression that Arbus was after something that she required the boy to give. She kept on taking the photos and then finally found it.