Diane Arbus, Aberdeen

About

Diane Arbus is acknowledged as one of the greats of twentieth-century American photography, renowned for her eerie, surreal and often disturbing portraits of marginalised characters. Through her commitment 'to photograph everybody', she often chose those whose situation or choices in life kept them on the fringes of society. With such people she built up relationships of trust to create portraits of astonishing intimacy. Her bold, direct style has been praised as a 'celebration of things as they are'.

Aberdeen Art Gallery presented a major selection of Diane Arbus' work drawn from the ARTIST ROOMS collection. The exhibition was accompanied by a free talk on the subject of Arbus' series of men in drag by Glasgow School of Art lecturer Glyn Davis, who discussed the consequences of displaying these images to a broader public.