Photographer’s full range revealed in new exhibit

Diane Arbus’ influence on modern photography may be
unmistakable, but one of the 20th century’s most iconic
photographers has been largely ignored by museum curators. The full
spectrum of her works rarely enters the consciousness of even her
biggest admirers.

That selective recognition will certainly be swayed by three
local photo exhibitions, including the monumental “Diane
Arbus Revelations” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The show, born in San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art, is
the first major retrospective of the legendary photographer since
SFMOMA’s original retrospective after her suicide in
1971.

Arbus’ haunting images of freak shows, transvestites and
the mentally ill have become a staple of modern photography. They
most certainly stood in harsh contrast to the idealistic images
portrayed in the mass media of post-war America. But according to
guest curator Elisabeth Sussman, casting Arbus as a mere freak
photographer is rather premature.

“This is a photographer of amazing curiosity, wit and
humor,” Sussman said. “It isn’t to say she
didn’t have a dark sense; she certainly did. But it’s
wrong to say that was her only view of America.”

The majority of Arbus’ best-known work was the result of
her meanderings in the various subcultures thriving in the 1960s.
Her camera served as a license to document the people and
situations that fascinated her. In the preface to her 1961 photo
essay in “Harper’s Bazaar,” which largely
established her in the mass media, Arbus spoke of that
intrigue:

“These are singular people who appear like metaphors
somewhere further out than we do, beckoned, not driven, invented by
belief, author and hero of a real dream by whichever own courage
and cunning are tested and tried so that we may wonder all over
again what is veritable and inevitable and possible and what it is
to become whoever we may be.”

These intimate insights into Arbus’ methodology ““
everything from diary entries and transcripts of her lectures to a
re-creation of her darkroom ““ not only define but also expand
the exhibit. Beyond the nearly 200 photographs in
“Revelations,” there are nearly as many pieces of such
ephemera, broadening the viewer’s understanding of Arbus, the
subject matter and the medium that consumed her. It is quite
unusual to have such a wide latitude of supporting material to an
artist’s basic works. Sussman notes that it was a struggle
with both Arbus’ daughter, Doon, who is in charge of her
mother’s estate, and museums worrying about information
overload.

“It took a couple years of convincing,” Sussman
said. She later added, “We had to convince people that all
these cameras and stuff would be appreciated. It’s unfair not
to give the public what you’ve seen. If there’s too
much to read, I say walk out and come back later.”

The process of accumulating the works also served as a catalyst
for naming the show. “The title “˜Revelations’
comes from the process of looking through these materials,”
Sussman said.

“Revelations” joins “Street Credibility”
at the MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary and “The Last Picture
Show” at UCLA’s Hammer Museum as testaments to the
power of modern photography ““ whether it is pushing its role
as an artistic medium, documenting life or, as usual, fitting
somewhere in between. “A photograph is a secret about a
secret,” Arbus once said. “The more it tells you, the
less you know.”