Open Secret

Prudence Peiffer | Bookforum | 22nd September 2016

A new biography of the photographer Diane Arbus has been released after ten years of research. Some reviews seem to have a prurient interest in its revelations about her highly unusual private life. Do the new details illuminate her photography? At best, by loose analogy. “She was looking for the opposite … a seam that was designed to be hidden. [Arbus said] there are things that nobody would see unless I photographed them”.