Diane Arbus – A Biography - Softcover

Bosworth, Patricia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393326616 ISBN 13: 9780393326611

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005

Synopsis

Diane Arbus's unsettling photographs of dwarves and twins, transvestites and giants, both polarized and inspired, and her work had already become legendary when she committed suicide in 1971. This groundbreaking biography examines the private life behind Arbus's controversial art. The book deals with Arbus's pampered Manhattan childhood, her passionate marriage to Allan Arbus, their work together as fashion photographers, the emotional upheaval surrounding the end of their marriage, and the radical, liberating, and ultimately tragic turn Arbus's art took during the 1960s when she was so richly productive. This edition includes a new afterword by Patricia Bosworth that covers the phenomenon of Arbus since her death, the latest Arbus scholarship, and a view of the first major retrospective of Arbus's work as well as notes on the forthcoming motion picture based on her story. Bosworth's engrossing book is a portrait of a woman who drastically altered our sense of what is permissible in photography.

About this title

Review:

"A biography that seems to have more than enough material for several art legends. Patricia Bosworth has created a spellbinding portrait" (New York Magazine)

"Sensitive...detailed...balanced" (New York Times)

"An excellent biography" (Times Literary Supplement)

"A spirited biography " (Time)

From the Publisher:

'Fascinating . . . a compelling biography . . . valuable in its insights into the cultural history of the 50s and 60s as well as its understanding of the special place Arbus occupies in it.' Washington Post Book World

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0393326616
• ISBN 13: 9780393326611
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400