Diane Arbus
1923-1971
1963 (negative)
Gelatin silver print (printed by Neil Selkirk)
sheet: 20 x 16 inches (508 x 406 mm); image: 14 1/2 x 14 3/8 inches
Purchased on the Horace W. Goldsmith Fund for Americana, 2008.
2008.54
Notes:
Ed. #16/75 Commissioned for the magazine Esquire, this photograph was one of the first portraits Arbus made after she switched from a 35 mm to a 2 1/4 twin-lens reflex camera, the larger negative of which allowed for greater detail and clarity. She used the square format to great effect in the writer's expressive pose. After seeing his portrait, Mailer remarked, "Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child."
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