[Leica] (no subject)

[Martin Deveney]

> Ms. Diane Arbus' work makes me uncomfortable and I think that's exactly
her
point.

Her point wasn't that you should feel uncomfortable.  Her point was that
we're all stuck in our own imperfect skin, and there are lots of things
each of us can not get away from.

> This contact sheet shows how she worked
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbs1usPOL71qaihw2o1_1280.jpg
The chosen frame is definitely the strongest one, but would I have chosen
it? Not so sure...  It's the 8th frame...

The capacity to self-edit well is rare in photographers; Arbus was superb
at it.  She was also amazing at making things look how she wanted them to
seem.  This:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/11/AR2005051102052.html
is an interesting take on how Arbus was capable of editing and presenting
things as she saw them; the twins' father comments that the famous Arbus
photo looks unlike all the other photos they have of his daughters.  The
comments from the by-then 50-year-old "grenade boy" are telling and
interesting.  And whatever you think of Mike Johnston this:
http://theonlinephotographer.blogspot.com.au/2006/03/top-ten-number-8.html
is a great piece of writing, and provides valuable commentary about Arbus
and the ongoing popularity of her vision despite her being among the most
analysed and discussed photographers of the 20th century.

All photography projects some of the photographer onto the subject.  It's
as simple as selecting when to press the shutter by which we choose what to
show, good, bad or indifferent.  There is nothing more or less exploitative
about pointing out that a seven-year-old can look crazy than there is in
trying to make him or her look "good" to get paid.

The print I saw of the grenade boy not only had an obvious and not very
well spotted dust mark, but had some clear, pretty poor dodging around the
tip of the boy's clothing strap that had fallen off his left shoulder.  It
was a late print by Arbus on air-dried, glossy, very cold tone paper (maybe
Oriental?) that looked like it might have been developed in something
like Defender coldtone developer.  It also had very funky asymmetrical
messy borders.

Marty