Kevin Alves
Instructor Kathleen Perry
Photography 50B
16 May 2016
Diane Arbus and the Unusual Subjects
In today’s world where selfies and sexting are common the work of Diane Arbus may seem tame. But in 1967 when the New Documents Exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art featured the work Arbus, along with that of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, as an alternative to traditional documentary photography it was shocking. Although her intimate portraits of those outside the mainstream made some people uncomfortable, some of her photos in the New Documents exhibit became some of her most defining in her short career and forever changed photography.
Today smartphone technology has put a camera in the hands of almost everyone it seems. People take …show more content…
The three photographers took a radical approach to documentary photography that was unlike traditional documentary photography. Rather than use their camera to expose what was wrong in the world with the intent that it would evoke action be taken to fix it, they used their camera to take a look at a world that was interesting, a world that did need fixing, but rather understanding. In fact John Szarkowski, the director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, who curated the exhibit said of the trio in a press release at the time:
“In the past decade this new generation of photographers has redirected the technique and aesthetic of documentary photography to more personal ends. Their aim has been not to reform life but to know it, not to persuade but to understand. The world, in spite of its terrors, is approached as the ultimate source of wonder and fascination, no less precious for being irrational and incoherent.” (MoMA press …show more content…
That was a government agency which had the task of fighting poverty in rural America. They hired photographers to document the need to be sure that the funds were being allocating correctly. This meant that photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Walker Evans and Russell Lee went to rural America to photograph the hardships the people in the Heartland were facing. The photographs they took of rural America not only increased awareness of the suffering, they created a culture of unity and action. They evoked emotions which served as a call to action. Poverty was something that could be remedied or
Instructor Kathleen Perry
Photography 50B
16 May 2016
Diane Arbus and the Unusual Subjects
In today’s world where selfies and sexting are common the work of Diane Arbus may seem tame. But in 1967 when the New Documents Exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art featured the work Arbus, along with that of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, as an alternative to traditional documentary photography it was shocking. Although her intimate portraits of those outside the mainstream made some people uncomfortable, some of her photos in the New Documents exhibit became some of her most defining in her short career and forever changed photography.
Today smartphone technology has put a camera in the hands of almost everyone it seems. People take …show more content…
The three photographers took a radical approach to documentary photography that was unlike traditional documentary photography. Rather than use their camera to expose what was wrong in the world with the intent that it would evoke action be taken to fix it, they used their camera to take a look at a world that was interesting, a world that did need fixing, but rather understanding. In fact John Szarkowski, the director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art, who curated the exhibit said of the trio in a press release at the time:
“In the past decade this new generation of photographers has redirected the technique and aesthetic of documentary photography to more personal ends. Their aim has been not to reform life but to know it, not to persuade but to understand. The world, in spite of its terrors, is approached as the ultimate source of wonder and fascination, no less precious for being irrational and incoherent.” (MoMA press …show more content…
That was a government agency which had the task of fighting poverty in rural America. They hired photographers to document the need to be sure that the funds were being allocating correctly. This meant that photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Walker Evans and Russell Lee went to rural America to photograph the hardships the people in the Heartland were facing. The photographs they took of rural America not only increased awareness of the suffering, they created a culture of unity and action. They evoked emotions which served as a call to action. Poverty was something that could be remedied or