I struck gold by complete chance when I read a small section on Diane Arbus in a book '50 photographers you should know' and also the preface.
Rendering the visible to make it visible --preface--
"They outsmart Chronos, the devouring god, snatching away a fraction of a second and granting it permanence."
"To equate a photograph with "reality" is, as we know, naive. And yet some photographs seem to come very close to what we might call reality."
"Perhaps we can come closer to a truth, or encounter a "lie" that nevertheless opens our eyes for a moment to a truth."
"If we try to impose our wills upon them, we can be sure they will suddenly escape our grasp"
"the perpetuum mobile of our existence pauses for a brief moment. No face, even in repose is totally motionless ........... A face held motionless on silver gelatin paper radically confounds our perception and triumphs over time and ageing."
Masters of portraits
- Nadar
- August Sandler
- Gisele Freund
- D A
- Richard Avedon
- Bert Stern
(contrast how portrait of others differs to oneself???)
"Much thought has been devoted to the nature of the portrait, and much has been written about it. Perhaps it was Diane Arbus who made the most perceptive comment, when she observed a fault line between intention and effect in the self perception of the person portrayed."
Diane Arbus used as an "examination of reality"
--------------Diane Arbus----------------
born 1923
suicide 1971
She began her career a fashion photographer and then became freelance, focusing on the human image.
She had a merciless striving for truth in her approach to human reality.
"everybody has that thing where they need to look one way but they come out looking another way that's what people observe."
-describing that "gap between intention and effect" in our self-image
"scrutinising reality"
Sometimes she had images in which people wore masks, "her concern was to look behind the masks we all wear."
---------------------------------------------
Internet Research
Fur - an imaginary portrait of Diane Arbus 2006 film (context)
Had a wealthy upbringing, quit art, got sick of people undeservingly telling her how extraordinary her work was
post - 008
Simon Johnson
www.thephilosophicalphotographer.co.uk
Diane Arbus - an overview
Posts
