Portraits using masks by some influential photographic artists.

Diane Arbus Untitled (4), (1970-1) Diane Arbus . Untitled (8), (1970-1) Diane Arbus . Ralph Eugene Meatyard Romance (N.) from Ambrose Bierce #3, (1962) Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Lucybelle Crater in the grape arbor, (1970-2) Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Cindy Sherman Untitled #466, 2008, Cindy Sherman Anna Fox Hampshire village pram race, 2006, Anna Fox.

Summary for Part 1, Looking at Them – The Representation of the Other.

I began this section with a preliminary exercise as a kind ice breaker in which I took photographs of people incognito and this really reaffirmed my discomfort of street photography which I think has become much harder to practise in our modern society that is now always under the gaze of CCTV and the world

Exercise 1.1a – Planning & Preparation.

The brief for this exercise is to produce five portraits of strangers from a variety of backgrounds. They must be classed as ‘Other’ so that they may differ by a significant respect from myself. This could be by age, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic background, social class, etc. I am also to keep notes of contact

Reading Task – The photographic works of Diane Arbus – My thoughts

Much has been said and written about Arbus and her work, but I wonder if too much has been read into her photographs?  The images used to critique her work style all appear to poses those elements of the sublime, they have that something, that punctum that Barthes coined (1) and which all photographers strive

Notes from the Margin of Spoilt Identity – The Art of Diane Arbus By Gerry Badger (1988)

Notes from the Margin of Spoilt Identity – The Art of Diane Arbus by Gerry Badger (1988). The above link will take you to the essay, Notes from the Margin of Spoilt Identity – The Art of Diane Arbus By Gerry Badger Published in Phototexts (1988) Topless dancer in her dressing room, San Francisco, California.

Susan Sontag’s criticism of Diane Arbus

From On Photography, (1977) Susan Sontag, London: Penguin, pages 32-48. Untitled – 1, 1970-1971. Diane Arbus Notes & passages of interest. Sontag begins her essay comparing an exhibition of 112 photographs by Diane Arbus that was exhibited in 1972 in at The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York city that drew large crowds

Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus, 1923 – 1971. Based in New York city, Arbus is most famous for her portraits of the marginalised, mentally and physically disabled, gays, sexual deviants, prostitutes, strippers, carnival performers and the unusual. Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. (1962) by Diane Arbus. Untitled 1, (1970) by Diane Arbus. Identical Twins,

Bibliography

Books Bang, M. (2000) Picture This How Pictures Work, San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC. Barthes, R. (2000) Camera Lucida, London: Vintage. Barthes, R. (1977) Image Music Text, London: Fontana Press. Berger, J. (1980) About Looking, London: Bloomsbury. Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing, London, Penguin. Bright, S. (ed.) (2013) Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood, London: