About Diane Arbus:
Known for: documentary photography; portraits of those society would consider outcasts or abnormal; taught at Parsons School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and Cooper Union.
Dates: March 14, 1923 - July 26, 1971
Occupation: photographer, educator
Also known as: Diane Nemerov, Diane Nemerov Arbus
Family, Background:
- Mother: Gertrude Russek Nemerov
- Father: David Irwin Nemerov
- Siblings: brother Howard was older
Education:
- Ethical Culture School, New York
- Fieldston School, Bronx, New York
- Cummington School of the Arts
- New School for Social Research, New York, 1955-1957
Marriage, Children:
- husband: Allen Arbus (married 1941, divorced 1969; worked at her father's store and did some photography)
- children: Doon (1945) and Amy (1954)
More About Diane Arbus:
Diane Arbus was born into a wealthy New York family and lived a very protected childhood. She attended private schools, and as a young woman studied painting. She married Allan Arbus at age 18, having met him when she was 14. Her husband taught her something of the photography he'd learned in the service.
Diane Arbus studied with Berenice Abbott in the 1940s, and after World War II went into business with her husband doing fashion photography.
In 1957, while Allan continued to work at their fashion studio, Diane Arbus left the studio for more freedom as a photographer. Diane Arbus studied with Lisette Model at the New School, and took to photographing what Arbus called "the losers of the world." She also taught photography. She sold her photo essays to major magazines.
In the 1960s, Diane Arbus photographed nudists. She also photographed many iconic figures in 1960s culture, including such diverse figures as Jacqueline Susann and Coretta Scott King. She continued to lecture at art schools.
Diane Arbus suffered from hepatitis, beginning in 1966. She was often ill, and in 1969, Allan Arbus divorced her and married again quickly and moved to California.
Diane Arbus had long suffered from depression, and she took her own life in 1971 by taking sleeping pills and slitting her wrists in the bathtub.
Books About Diane Arbus:
- Patricia Bosworth. Diane Arbus: A Biography. 1984.
