Diane Arbus

1923 — 1971

As the first American photographer to exhibit at the Venice Biennale, Diane Arbus still holds an undisputed place in the history of photography. Initially working as a fashion photographer, she soon turned to the unusual, the eccentric and the whimsical. Teenagers, circus performers, nudists, middle-class families, the elderly - her subjects included people who had long been excluded from the realm of fine art. Her intimate photographs offered unadulterated insights that challenged the role of distance between photographer and subject.

In 1967, the Museum of Modern Art included her work in its landmark exhibition "New Documents," cementing her legacy as a visual artist. Since her tragic, untimely death in 2006, Diane Arbus' works have been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, San Francisco, and many other cities. They are now in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Moderna Museet, and the Tate, to name a few.