Amanda Page Stephens Weekly Post

Dianne Arbus

Circus Freaks

Diane Arbus (Diane Nemerov) was born in 1923 to the Jewish family in New York that owned the department store called Fifth Avenue. At 48 in 1971 she took her own life by ingesting barbiturates and slashing her wrist. During her short life, Arbus accomplished great fame. For 10 years,  she had a commercial photography business with her husband that had works published in all the great fashion magazines. Arbus hated fashion photography so she quit it in 1956. She then began studying photography at the New School and exhibiting. She is known as the greatest female photographer of her time.
Arbus started with a 35 mm Nikon camera. She eventually moved on to a twins lens reflex Rolleiflex.
Arbus' series documenting circus freaks was revolutionary for her time. She reveals a world which many choose to ignore.
I found a quote that really speaks of her feelings of "freaks". I feel as if it sheds light to why she wanted to document them.
"Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot.... 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."
For me, these images evoke the many sides of a freak show. The sadness, the seriousness, the happiness. All the images are haunting and powerful.