DIANE ARBUS

"I really believe there are things which nobody would see unless I photographed them"

  

The exhibition of Diane Arbus at the Jeu de Paume does not propose a theme or an introduction through different periods link to her biography. The 200 pictures are blended. This is an exhibition without any text or quotation of the artist or from the curator. Notebooks, critical texts, publications or other media are confined to the end of the exhibition, in two rooms. So, our perception is free of any influence. Moreover, the scenography is refined. The monochrome photography inspired the grey and white colours of the walls.

It is just the photography and us. We are in the play of the photograph, an intimate relationship captured thanks to the character’s looking towards the spectator, taken from the front with a close shot. We feel in these photos the influence of her experience for fashion magazines like Vogue, Seventeen or Glamour. She perfectly controls the camera, the light and the depth of field. 

Despite the absence of organization, it’s a real immersion into the work of Diane Arbus which reveals us an harmonious and coherent work. It shows, as her will, what it makes you different, original, unique. It is why she photographs people considered as freaks or marginal like twins, triplets, mentally disabled, nudists, beast fair, atypical couples. These photos depicted a wide range of the American society from the fifties to the seventies, always with a smile, an humoristic touch. She also takes photos of figures (Jorge Luis Borges, Marcello Mastroianni…) or unknown people in order to work on facial expressions, which are naturals, familiars and always convey a strange feeling of uneasiness. Diane Arbus succeed in proving that everyone has a part of strangeness. But she never generates sadness, as Plato said, she wants to seize on the wonderful in the difference.


Diane Arbus at the Jeu de Paume
Paris, 10-18-2011 to 02-05-2012