Diane Arbus

by pathwise

Posted to WritersAndGenres on 2003-05-28 11:08:00

Parent message is 457807
It used to be that I absolutely hated photography and it was all because of Ansel Adams. I always saw photographers as trying to capture something that couldn’t captured. That’s why I still hate Adams…as much as folks like his work, the landscapes he tries to film are so much grander in 360 degrees than in two-dimensional 8×10.

I can’t remember what started getting me interested in photography, but it was the work of Diane Arbus, Larry Clark, Ralph Eugene Meatyard that really got me hooked. Also Walker Evans and the Farm Security Administration project.

What strikes me in Arbus is the way she captures the grotesque in people, but at the same time that “grotesque-ness” is so beautiful.
I remember visiting the Museum of Contemporary Art many years ago with a friend and his parents…while they looked around for about an hour, I stood amazed in front of four small photos by Clark…yeah, now I remember, that was the instance where photography first hit me and I understood its power.
I’m also attracted to images of abandon, decay, empty spaces, which is why I dig Evans’ work. There is a photographer near where I live, John Bower, who is doing some incredible work in this area and is documenting abandoned spaces in southern Indiana. His website is www.studioindiana.com and is worth checking out.

A few years back, my wife bought me a manual camera and I signed up for a b/w photography class…had a ball and have been taking photos ever since.

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