Description Diane Arbus (American/New York, 1923-1971), "Russian Midget Friends in a Living Room on 100th Street, NYC", 1963 negative creation date, gelatin silver print, signed, titled, dated and numbered "29/75", printed by Neil Selkirk, Diane Arbus and Doon Arbus stamps en verso, "A Gallery for Fine Photography, New Orleans" label on backing, 20 in. x 16 in., framed . Provenance: A Gallery for Fine Photography, New Orleans, LA; Collection of Noted Preservationist and Aesthete Dorian M. Bennett, New Orleans. Note: Diane Arbus was an American photographer best known for her intimate black-and-white portraits. Arbus often photographed people considered on the fringes of society at the time, including the mentally ill, transgender people and circus performers. ?A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know,? she once mused. Arbus was raised in a wealthy family, enabling her to pursue artistic interests from an early age. She first saw the photographs of Mathew Brady, Paul Strand and Eugène Atget while visiting Alfred Stieglitz?s gallery with her husband in 1941. During the mid-1940s, the couple began a commercial photography venture that contributed to Vogue and Harper?s Bazaar. By the 1950s, Arbus began roaming the streets of New York with her camera, documenting the city through its residents. These images were later shown alongside those of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander in The Museum of Modern Art?s exhibition ?New Documents? of 1967. In the famous image offered here, Arbus captures not only a group of New York citizens, but also the intersectional and intangible community bonds formed amongst the individuals living life as little people and immigrants in the city.
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