Diane Arbus Revelations

Rating:
Summary: Diane Arbus Revelations
Review: Arbus (1923-71) said that her approach to photography was like gathering a butterfly collection, in that she aimed to depict objectively the distinctiveness of her unusual subjects. Known best for her pictures of human aberrance, she is again the subject of a new wave of popular appreciation. Revelations accompanies a major retrospective and is the most comprehensive study of her life and work yet to appear. An outstanding accomplishment in a photography book, it's a title that in its density and design successfully encapsulates the work of an eclectic artist who at times defies interpretation. Articulate textual matter weaves together thorough coverage of Arbus's images. In a very readable introductory chapter, curator Phillips unravels Arbus's philosophy and places her within an aesthetic continuum containing forerunners such as August Sander and Lisette Model. An image-rich 100-page chronology, compiled by curator Elizabeth Sussman and the photographer's daughter, Doon Arbus, will stand as a definitive account for generations to come. Topping it off is a section of detailed biographies of 55 dramatis personae in Arbus's life and an essay on the technical aspects of printing her photos by her longtime darkroom collaborator Neil Selkirk. The focus of Family Albums is a large, previously unknown group of photos of one wealthy New York family, here shown alongside better-known portraits. Coalescing around an Arbus claim in a 1968 letter about starting a book to be entitled Family Album, this book by art history professor Lee (Mount Holyoke) and Pultz (Univ. of Kansas) takes a new perspective that will help expand her reputation beyond that of an illuminator of social marginalia. The newly discovered photos are presented separately as contact sheets, and to see them alongside her finished prints demonstrates well the amount of labor Arbus devoted to creating a more arresting final product. Revelations is a near-essential purchase for most collections, and libraries seeking the most thorough coverage of this pivotal artist should consider buying both titles

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant tribute to a great artist
Review: Diane Arbus was best-known for her stark, black-and-white photographs of the outer fringes of society. She was very much of her time period, since the things she had to go outside of the lines to photograph (inter-racial couples, people with tattoos, drag queens, etc.) are now a part of every day life. I was fortunate enough to see a display of her work at the L.A. County Museum of Art, and this volume is a wonderful companion to the show. Not only are all the plates from the show included, but also copies of correspondence, pictures of her cameras, and the story of her sad, short life. In many ways, she was ahead of her time, with the un-smiling, un-flattering portraits of real people, at a time when most photography was glossy, and reality was still somewhat hidden.

Like most brilliant artists, she was troubled and was not happy with her life. She took her life at a relatively young age, before she could see the modern world, reflected from her early photographs. It is a pity, but we are lucky to have the photographs of Diane Arbus live on.

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Summary: The Monograph as Art Form
Review: DIANE ARBUS: REVELATIONS is one of the most beautiful monographs of an artist I have ever seen or read. This over-sized, beautifully bound, highest quality paper, extraordinarily fine reproductions of photogravure, and sensitively designed and written catalogue for the touring museum exhibition of Diane Arbus Photographs is simply magnificent and well worth the rather steep price. But a state-of-the-art monograph would be of little consequence were it not about one of the most controversial and phenomenally gifted photographers of the last century. Arbus had an affinity for capturing people she encountered because they produced a source of wonder in her. Her eyes were attracted to the edges of normal appearance and anatomy where she captured luminously tender photographs of developmentally challenged fellow human beings. There are countless images of children and adults who have survived a life of 'non-normalcy' and she framed them in her camera's eye with no sense of the voyeur, but instead with a great sense of humanism. Here are portraits of giants with their parents, patients from mental institutions, carnival folk, transvestites, anatomic wonders, as well as simple twins, people she found fascinating, populated places that struck her imagination. The photogrpahs of Diane Arbus have become icons and the contributors to this volume help to propel her already praiseworthy status to that of a genius: Sandra Phillips' essay 'The Question of Belief', photographer Neil Selkirk's intimate 'In the Darkroom' (Selkirk is the only person allowed to develop prints of Arbus' output), and the beautifully conceptualized and constructed Chronology by Doon Arbus and Elisabeth Sussman bringing to us rarely seen portions of Arbus' output and thoughts - all of these are rendered in the best of taste and finest of scholarship. Finally, here is a volume that fleshes out the magnificence of the art of Diane Arbus. This bibliophile's dream of a book deserves awards and most important, deserves your attention. Highly recommended as a true collector's item.

Rating:
Summary: The Monograph as Art Form
Review: DIANE ARBUS: REVELATIONS is one of the most beautiful monographs of an artist I have ever seen or read. This over-sized, beautifully bound, highest quality paper, extraordinarily fine reproductions of photogravure, and sensitively designed and written catalogue for the touring museum exhibition of Diane Arbus Photographs is simply magnificent and well worth the rather steep price. But a state-of-the-art monograph would be of little consequence were it not about one of the most controversial and phenomenally gifted photographers of the last century. Arbus had an affinity for capturing people she encountered because they produced a source of wonder in her. Her eyes were attracted to the edges of normal appearance and anatomy where she captured luminously tender photographs of developmentally challenged fellow human beings. There are countless images of children and adults who have survived a life of 'non-normalcy' and she framed them in her camera's eye with no sense of the voyeur, but instead with a great sense of humanism. Here are portraits of giants with their parents, patients from mental institutions, carnival folk, transvestites, anatomic wonders, as well as simple twins, people she found fascinating, populated places that struck her imagination. The photogrpahs of Diane Arbus have become icons and the contributors to this volume help to propel her already praiseworthy status to that of a genius: Sandra Phillips' essay 'The Question of Belief', photographer Neil Selkirk's intimate 'In the Darkroom' (Selkirk is the only person allowed to develop prints of Arbus' output), and the beautifully conceptualized and constructed Chronology by Doon Arbus and Elisabeth Sussman bringing to us rarely seen portions of Arbus' output and thoughts - all of these are rendered in the best of taste and finest of scholarship. Finally, here is a volume that fleshes out the magnificence of the art of Diane Arbus. This bibliophile's dream of a book deserves awards and most important, deserves your attention. Highly recommended as a true collector's item.

Rating:
Summary: Warning! For hard-core Arbus fans only
Review: I enjoy Diane Arbus' photos, but this book is too much for me. Her photos are only a small part of the book -- the majority of the book is a catalogue of her life. The contact sheets are quite interesting, as they reveal a lot about how she approached a subject. The rest will likely appeal only to hardcore Arbus fans.

Rating:
Summary: Warning! For hard-core Arbus fans only
Review: I enjoy Diane Arbus' photos, but this book is too much for me. Her photos are only a small part of the book -- the majority of the book is a catalogue of her life. The contact sheets are quite interesting, as they reveal a lot about how she approached a subject. The rest will likely appeal only to hardcore Arbus fans.

Rating:
Summary: Revealing, revalatory
Review: I own two Arbus monographs and have lived with them for over 20 years. Many of those works are reproduced in this volume. There is a lot of talk about "the human condition" and I suppose all artists in one way or another wrestle with the notion. Arbus has always meant to me someone who seemed to reveal who we are beneath the fashion, the roles, the sex, the culture. I used one of her images as a means to illuminate a poster for a Sam Shepard play called Icarus' Mother - it was of a very young New York boy holding a toy hand grenade in a threatening way during play in Central Park - once seen never forgotten.
Nor will I forget her self portrait, naked pregnant, in this latest volume. So much. So much. This is the volume Arbus lovers have been waiting for. Printed in Germany, beautifully bound, positively packed with images, diary entries, extracts from letters, comment. A bargain.

Rating:
Summary: Revealing, revalatory
Review: I own two Arbus monographs and have lived with them for over 20 years. Many of those works are reproduced in this volume. There is a lot of talk about "the human condition" and I suppose all artists in one way or another wrestle with the notion. Arbus has always meant to me someone who seemed to reveal who we are beneath the fashion, the roles, the sex, the culture. I used one of her images as a means to illuminate a poster for a Sam Shepard play called Icarus' Mother - it was of a very young New York boy holding a toy hand grenade in a threatening way during play in Central Park - once seen never forgotten.
Nor will I forget her self portrait, naked pregnant, in this latest volume. So much. So much. This is the volume Arbus lovers have been waiting for. Printed in Germany, beautifully bound, positively packed with images, diary entries, extracts from letters, comment. A bargain.

Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Book
Review: Thank you Doon Arbus for publishing it.

Rating:
Summary: An Apt Title!
Review: The first book I ever saw that made me realize photographs were more than family snapshots was Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph. For years I've wondered about the woman who took those photographs and how she worked...from getting her subjects to pose for her, to how she developed and processed her film, and also about her life. Revelations provides many answers and more. Kudos to DA's daughter Doon for releasing this material in a beautiful volume that has already provided hours of enlightenment, and it just arrived today. The printing is immaculate and the text is amazing with lots of passages from DA's journals, notebooks, school papers, letters and postcards. This book may well become the definitive work on her, as it provides much more insight to her life and work then the unauthorized biography from the 1980's by Bosworth. This is a perfect book, in my opinion.