Analysis of Diane Arbus' Artwork (Essay Sample)

Name Course Tutor Date Analysis of Diane Arbus’ work The piece of art under analysis for this paper is a portrait by Diane Arbus called identical twins, taken in 1967. Diane Arbus was born as Diane Nemerov to Jewish parents living in New York on March 14, 1923 (Arbus 23). Diane was born to a wealthy family but the great depression of 1930 took a toll on the family’s wealth. Her father went from being a prominent businessperson to a painter. Her older siblings ventured into various fields of art for which they had interest. At the age of 18, she married her childhood sweetheart who also happened to have interest in photography. His name was Allan Arbus. Together, they travelled to different art galleries taking pictures of whatever interested. Diane happened to be alive when the black and white photography movement had taken over. The movement created more interest in photography. Diane Arbus had a passion in taking the pictures of people who were considered surreal and ugly during those ages (Arbus 34). ‘Identical twins’ was picture taken at the Christmas party for twins in the neighborhood. The twins were Cathleen and Colleen Wade. Everybody, including their parents, was amazed by their striking similarity. Another notable photograph by the artist displaying an unusual individual is that of a Jewish Giant with his family. Other pictures that Diane took include those of the disabled, mentally unstable, and street children. She began to take photos of freaks- as they were called during those ages- after her bitter divorce. I choose to compare Diane’s work with mine because we both have interest in photography. Photography was a form of therapy to Diane after she went through a painful divorce. Photography is my solace whenever I feel down. The serenity that comes with photography is simply appalling. The subject matter of the portrait is the similarity of the identical twins and the fact that they are rare in the society. The relationship between the artist and the portrait is that the artist is interested in surreal people in the society and the identical twins happen to fall in that category because they are a rare occurrence. The artwork is related to its audience in that it carters for the interests of people who like to see pictures of unfamiliar human beings. Diane’s audience primarily comprises of people who find interest in seeing other people with surreal features. The portrait of the identical twins falls under the category of surreal hence attractive to such people. A portrait to me is the type of photography that displays the mood, personality and expression of the subject (Leslie 38). I like portrait photography because I can tell the mood of the subject even though I was not present during the shooting. I also use portrait photography to tell the mood of my subjects when reviewing their photographs later. Portrait photography is also important in telling the personality of people we have never met before but have only seen their photograph. Light is a very important factor when portraying personality in black and white photography. The HIGHLIGHT of a black and white portrait will determine the personality of the subjects (Goldstone et al 476). For instance, minimizing the light and shadows could help portray a serious personality. Capturing the subjects in their natural state is also important in portraying personality. Asking one’s subjects to say ‘Cheese’ will not bring out the personality in the portrait. In order to portray the personality of my subjects through my images, I avoid the effect of CAST SHADOW. Cast shadow can have a negative impact on the LOCAL VALUE of the portrait in that it will increase the ratio of darkness to light. VALUE in Black and white portraits is important in determining the characteristic of the color of the subjects by comparing the degree of light and darkness and how it is reflected on the color (Shalom 176). TEXTURE on the other hand is important in distinguishing the minute details of black and white portraits. Texture creates more detail in the portrait hence increasing its level of attractiveness. When I transformed my photograph to a collage mediu...