Lady at a masked ball with two roses on her dress, NYC by Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus (March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for photographs of marginalized people and others whose normality was perceived by the general populace as ugly or surreal.

In 1963, Arbus was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for a project on “American rites, manners, and customs”; the fellowship was renewed in 1966. Her methods included establishing a strong personal relationship with her subjects and re-photographing some of them over many years.

The first major exhibition of her photographs occurred at the Museum of Modern Art in an influential 1967 show called “New Documents”, alongside the work of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, curated by John Szarkowski. Szarkowski presented what he described as “a new generation of documentary photographers”, described elsewhere as “photography that emphasized the pathos and conflicts of modern life presented without editorializing or sentimentalizing but with a critical, observant eye.”

In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale. A catalogue, Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph, edited by Doon Arbus and Marvin Israel and published in 1972, is a best selling photography monograph, still being reprinted today.

–Adapted from Wikipedia.

This photograph is from an edition of 75 prints commissioned by the Arbus Estate. It was purchased from the Mirvish Gallery, circa 1977.