Anyone else reading Arthur Lubow's "Diane Arbus Portrait of a Photographer@

What do you think about it? Has it made you think about photography -yours, hers, or anyone's - differently?

<p>I read the Patricia Bosworth bio of her back in 1984 when it first came out as well as numerous other reference books about her, so I don't think I'll go for this one. But, if you make it sound interesting, I may have to reconsider.</p>

<p>I do have the new <em><a href="http://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation.cfm?Catalog=YU184">diane arbus: in the beginning</a></em>, which is pretty interesting, but not the topic of this thread, so I'll leave it at that.</p>

<p>My wife gave me a copy in April, and I delayed reading it just because of its size (I'm not a fast reader, so it was going to take some time.) I found it to be well researched and well written. Some of Arbus's work was familiar to me already, but I knew very few details of her life, and the book is quite detailed. Now I know some of the connections among Arbus's influences and contemporaries, and I feel a little better prepared to view her work, as well as that of some others from her time. I recommend the book.</p>

I read the bosworth biography a few years ago as well; I found it pretty shallow compared to the Lubow book, and very

tawdry. Lots of allegations she could not back up and it did not go into her place in the magazine and photography worlds, something Lubow does.

<blockquote>

<p>"I found it pretty shallow ... and very tawdry."</p>

</blockquote>

<p>It sure was. I remember criticism at the time. That book along with the hideous -- even though claiming to be a only a fictional take-off -- movie <em>Fur</em> have not done Arbus any favors.</p>

 

There is plenty in Diane Arbus' sex life throughout her life that a writer can have a field day with if like Bsworth they

choose to go in that direction. What Lubow brings out is how that intertwines with the larger aspects of her life and her

work. More interestingly is how who she was as a person inflected her work and inside that the photographic decisions

she made. One thing I was not previously aware of as how much in demand she was in the early and mid-sixties as an

editorial photographer and what set her apart from her contemporaries.

 

I never saw "Fur" or had much interest in it.

<p>Fur isn't very good, to say the least.</p>

deleted.

Lubov gives Lisette Model the final word on Susan Sontag and "On Photography". To Eva Ribenstein who had a copy of

it: "This woman, she knows everything but understands nothing."

Ellis, are you still around the forums?

 

I'm finally reading this book and I find that Lubow 1) does a beautiful job of writing about the photography side of her life: I'm loving all the detail; but 2) I'm having a very hard time liking her as a person, not because of the sex life (though the incest is hard to ignore), but because Lubow seems to want me to not like her, or at least that's the impression I get. Your comments, above, seem to suggest that you found thought the portrayal was more friendly. Is that right?

 

In any event, it's beautifully written; very readable and with tons of good background and insight on her photographic work.