Changing the World in Diane Arbus's Book, Child with a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park

Diane Arbus is a photographer from New York City her work is from the 1950s and 1960s. Diane work for a well know fashion magazines like Vogue magazine. Diane has a collection of photos of children. She has a attraction to taking photos of young children. One picture that she has called my attention was a little girl that looks like she getting out of school. Arbus works on the people first impression.

TXT- She incorporates symbolic imagery into her paintings in her series of self portraits, especially relating events of her past life and integrates them into the paintings with the help of Surrealism. Pg 367

Surrealism was one of the most influential artistic movements of the 20th Century. André Breton consolidated Surrealism as a movement in the early 1920s, trying to achieve the “total liberation of the mind and of all that resembles it[1]” through innovative and varied ideas. Surrealism deeply influenced the world in the era between the two world wars and played a big role in the diffusion and adoption of psychology worldwide. Surrealism faded after World War II, but its revolutionary genius has influenced every artistic movement ever since.

Superheroes, everyone knows them as the ones who fly or run around defeating the villains, then there are the vigilantes who like to keep their actions in the dark. These two groups have always been confused with one another and there really is not a clear difference in their goals. However, there are many differences in the way they will reach them. They protect the world in many different ways, and they leave people in admiration.

Aside from the Brooklyn Museum, the only museum I had been to in the last four years would be the Met Breuer. As I was instructed to visit the Diane Arbus exhibit at the Met Breuer, I imagined the same type of scenery any museum would look like; high ceiling, large frames, and a collection of detailed and colorful work. It occurred to my surprise when instead I saw an identical collection of same sized frames, of just people, in what seemed to be black and white. As I took a deeper glance, I noticed almost none of the people photographed were smiling. It appeared that they were candid photos, yet they all looked directly at the camera. Arbus’ photos were drawn to unusual public places and scenery in black and white with some surreal contrast portraits. I noticed the raw images of peculiar people often brought focus on those who may be the outliers of their society; transgender, dwarfs, nudists, circus clowns, and even children. There were various particular themes that struck a chord with me, however, among the many images I came across during my search, I found Arbus’ portraits on transgender people provoke the most emotion and intrigue. The wide variety of each portrait as well as the ways she chose to portray them told a story of both lives and culture within her lifetime. Being particularly interested on transgender people, I was captivated with the complexities of her work and the way that she transcended so many boundaries which constantly had me question the theme she

According to Atticus Finch, heroism is “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” If a first grader was asked what a hero was, the majority of them would respond: Spiderman, Superman, Batman, or any other of the endless marvel superheroes. However, heroes can be anyone. They can be your mom, dad, brother, friend, a new acquaintance, or anyone and everyone. In movies and books heroes usually have special qualities otherwise known as superpowers. Superpowers such as super strength, invisibility, they can walk through walls, or even fly. But in the real world where superheroes and superpowers do not exist, qualities that a hero possesses are varied.

All heroes are not fictional characters that have extraordinary or superhuman powers. A hero to me is a skillful or successful person who can motivate me and bring my confidence to the next level even through my down falls. A super hero in my eyes does not have any powers although you might think they do but it’s always their determination and focus that makes me believe heroes have super powers. Now that I have given you an idea of a hero to me, I can now move on to explain different types of heroes.

On October 2, 1949, one of the most well-known and accomplished women in the photography business, was welcomed to Earth. Eighteen years later, she was enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute where she planned to study painting, but stumbled upon a new found love for photography. Years later, this leading lady was offered a job as a staff photographer for the budding rock n’ roll magazine, Rolling Stone. Among many techniques, she is known for her use of daring primary colors and shocking poses. Her work is incredibly respected and her presence is extremely important within the art world. She has developed the ability to balance both commercial and museum-worthy photography and blends the two beautifully. Known for her controversiality, she creates images that are both provocative and beautiful. She has all the right skills and abilities to be able to push the envelope, yet keep it attractive. She is inspiring. She is captivating. She is daring. She is unique. She is: Annie Leibovitz.

She created art, starring non-traditional people. Diane grew up pampered and with a strong sense of what was and wasn’t acceptable. ("Diane Nemerov Arbus.", 1998). The sense of being immune to the hardships of life seemed hard for her. She had always fantasised but never shared it with anyone. She did not show her diverse ideas until she was an adult, following her dream as a photographer. She took photos of people often seen as “ugly” in society. Such as dwarfs, giants, gays, circus performers, those mentally challenged, and non-traditional

Diane began attended Alexey Brodovitch's workshops at a New School. However Arbus found herself drawn to the work of photographs like (Weegee) Arthur Fellig, Louis Faurer, Robert Frank and, especially to the unusual pictures of Lisette Model. In 1958 Arbus enrolled in a class, Model was offering at a New School.

In 1963, she did a project called“American rites, manners, and customs” she did this using the technique of square formating. This project was a collection of photos she took on the streets of New York after she quit the commercial photography business. This project gained Arbus a Guggenheim Fellowship which was renewed in 1966. After this she started to establish strong personal bonds with the people she took photos of and rephotographing them over many years to come. By the 1960’s, Diane was hired to photograph The Matthaeis who were huge art collectors. At this time she was also teaching photography at the Rhode Island School of Design, Cooper Union, and Parsons School of Design. Diane had a full schedule during the 1960’s because she was still photographing during her free time as a side

Arbus used the movement of photojournalism to capture and create a news story; she wanted to show the world what lies beyond the margins of society. During this time period, no one photographed the social outcasts, the rejects, or the abnormal individuals, except for Arbus. She found these individuals to be interesting and intriguing; it piqued her interest. She photographed dwarves, transvestites, prostitutes, and those who were considered to be ugly. Additionally, she got close to her subjects and “extended [the] notions of acceptable subject-matter and violate canons of ‘decent’ distance between photographer and subject” (OXFORD). Arbus was not afraid to collaborate on a more personal level with her subjects, which allowed for a unique partnership that lasted years. For instance, one of her subjects was still appearing in photographs, ten years later (DeCarlo). Aside from her innovative photojournalism, she also experimented with different types of cameras and lighting. At first, Arbus began with a thirty five millimeter camera and used natural lighting; this allowed for blurriness and graininess in her photographs, similar to Model’s work. However, in 1962, she switched to a two and one fourth format camera (DeCarlo). By switching to this camera, it allowed her to have a clearer and sharper

During the early parts of her career, her content mostly centered around advertisements and work for fashion magazines. For example, in the 1940’s her father hired her to take photos of his store for advertisements, and Diane and Allan Arbus’s business was hired to take pictures for fashion magazines such as Vogue, Glamour, and other magazines. One of these works was an advertisement ofMost of her early works were commercial pieces, but later in her life she began photographing the “freaks” of

What is surrealism? Surrealism is a “revolution,” "pure psychic automatism," “an attack of conscience,” and a “new mode of pure expression” according to its founder André Breton. In his highly controversial texts, “Manifestoes of Surrealism,” Breton exposes us to this new term he coined along with his colleague Philippe Soupault in homage to Guillaume Apollinaire, someone whom they believed had followed the discipline, and he explains the phenomenon in detail so that more can become aware and utilize the technique. Drawing heavy influences from Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, Breton reveals to us the limitless opportunities of surrealism and how it frees us from everyday reality, similar to how the exoteric texts challenged us to question our beliefs. I

As mentioned surrealism, like Dadaism, tried to distance itself from contemporary culture and sought to shock the familiarity of reality. Hence, the unconscious has a centrepiece in surrealist art and the underlying theme was to create images of such unconscious situation or universes. This was primarily achieved with the use of symbolism and the placing of objects in unfamiliar settings. This would revitalize and redefine such objects outside the conventional reality that is the adversary in surrealist art and hence create the desired conflict between the conventional and the unconscious (Waldberg 1997; Martin 1987).