Thursday, January 10, 2013

Diane Arbus

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know."
Diane Arbus (1923-1971), U.S. photographer. Quoted in Patricia Bosworth, Diane Arbus: A Biography, Preface (1985).


Hello Friends,

Recently I have been working on a poem that Diane Arbus makes a cameo in. This inspired me to spend some time looking at her art work and reading a little more about what she was about.

My question of the day is................

do you agree with her statement, and if so, would this apply to your poetry as well?

3 comments:

  1. This is true of Arbus's photos. They definitely suggested far more questions than answers. When I saw her first exhibit at MOMA in 1971 (I think), I was freaked out for a month.

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  2. More is less in poetry as in photography. The moment-by-moment sensual image is the brick-and-mortar of poetry -- not discourse, narrative, or polemic.

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  3. The statement is true of everything ... the world seems blah but it's streaked through with weirdness. That was her contribution -- the idea that monsters lived behind the white fences.

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