Diane Arbus - Reading the Photograph

 I will begin my research on portrits by loooking at a photograph by Diane Arbus.  I have chosen this image of Child with a toy hand grenade (1962).  I chose this image as the boy drew me into the image, he looks strange and wild with hands clenched.  Is this boy posing?  Is the photographer directing this boy to strike this pose, pull this face or is this what the boy looks like?  He is at the forefront of the image with background of the park dropping out behind him, it is a sunny day in New York City. The boy is slightly off centre and light of the tree creates a pattern of light and he is standing on a path and the leading line is disappearing into the park where we see others strolling in the sun in the background. looking closely at the boy with the wild look in his eyes and the hand grenade, I feel that this boy was directed, he looks directly into the camera, challenging the viewer.  His dirty knees and wrinkled socks, his clothes with the dungaree strap falling off his shoulder emphasise that perhaps all is not well.

Diane Arbus (American, 1923-1971)

Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962

The boy in this image was called Colin Wood and, at this time in America, the Vietnam War (1955-1975) was at its height and the boy understood this Bree Hughes from the auction house stated; 'Arbus captures a boy on the cusp of adolescence yet still playing with toys—but the object is a plastic grenade, an object of war' (Cascone, 2017).  The boy, Colin Wood was looked after by nannies and his parents were divorcing so he was quite angry and frustrated, 'years later he [Colin Wood] said of Arbus, ‘She saw in me the frustration, the anger at my surroundings, the kid wanting to explode but can’t because he’s constrained by his background’.' (Saatchi, 2021) This may be the context to the image and the boys' background but as a shoot the whole contact sheet tells more of a story.  In most these images the child looks happy, contented, relaxed, smiling and even posing for th camera. This is not what Arbus was after nad in the final photo the one that was to become a seminal image in the art world, Bree Hughes states; 'In this photo, his patience has worn thin, as if to say ‘take my photo already!' (Cascone, 2017).  I would argue that Arbus deliberately frustrated the boy to get the picture she really wanted.  Arbus on this occasion had;  'spent almost eight hours shooting the family, deliberately employing her ‘truth-by-exhaustion’ technique' (Saatchi, 2021).

Contact Sheet of Child with a toy hand grenade (1962) by Diane Arbus

This image was taken with a square format Rolliflex camera and around this time; 'Arbus stopped using her 35mm cameras in favor of a 2 ¼ twin-lens Rolleiflex.'  (Sothebys, 2016).  The square format became her style and suited the portrait images she wanted to take.  In the Sothebys catalogue the blurb states of this image; 'Arbus’s best images demonstrate the photographer’s uncanny ability to interact and empathize with her sitters, and in this photograph Arbus has entered the complex and brilliant world of the child with a vengeance.' (Sothebys, 2016) Again, I would argue that this is not entirely true, I do think that Arbus considered herself an outsider in society however, I don't think she always empathised with her subjects, as evidenced here she basically exhaused the boy till she got the image she wanted. Nick Tauro argues in a similar manner; 'this photo of a young boy playing with a toy looks positively unsettling. Perhaps that was her agenda all along. Possibly she knew full well that she could manipulate the viewer’s response.' (Tauro, 2017). This is interesting, as now we can start thinking about viewer response, so moving forward from photographer and sitter, we will examine the third person in the photograph the viewer. 

As a viewer of the image, I am looking at this through the lens of history, however in this particular image this could be a child playing inalmost anytime, the clothes and people give the time away somewhat.  This image now is considered a seminal image in the ouvre of Arbus however this was not always the case and Ingledew in his book 'Photography'; states 'One photographer interviewed for this book remembers Diane Arbus's prints - each now worth the value of a large house - being stuck up on a pinboard among the chaos of The Sunday Times art department for anyone to take home, so little were they valued.' (Ingledew, 2013) Our perception of what is valuable in artistic terms changes over time and at different times in history.  At the moment Arbus's work is considered very valuable as historical document, attitudes of the time and the mores of society in her time.  They are also valuable as they posit an ethical and moral argument about photgraphy.  Are we just the voyeaurs looking on, is Arbus making us voyeurs and these individuals are still essentially freaks to be looked at.  We now have reality TV whichis a modern voyeurism that is prolific.  Social media of course has made evryone into voyeurs of others lives and not always in a good way.  Did Arbus improve the lives of those she photographed or change people's attituse to those she photographed and to an extent she did by exposing people outside of society to those within it, she did make people think and consider their own attitudes.  I hope that it did contribute (whatever Arbus's intentions) make society more a more considerate, tolerent and diverse place for us to live in today.

References

Benson, L. (2023). What happens when an arts icon dies? [online] @FinancialTimes. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/b932214a-4a2a-4acf-aa61-580c7d7d960e [Accessed 28 Jan. 2025].

Bunyan, D.M. (2012). Diane Arbus On Freaks. [online] Art Blart. Available at: https://artblart.com/tag/diane-arbus-on-freaks/ [Accessed 28 Jan. 2025].

Cascone, S. (2017). Revisiting Diane Arbus’s Most Famous Photo on Her 94th Birthday. [online] artnet News. Available at: https://news.artnet.com/market/diane-arbus-birthday-890000 [Accessed 28 Jan. 2025].

Ingledew, J. (2013). Photography Second Edition. London: Laurence King Publishing.

Saatchi, C. (2021). Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park NYC, 1964. [online] Charles Saatchi. Available at: https://www.charlessaatchi.com/child-with-a-toy-hand-grenade-in-central-park-nyc-1964/ [Accessed 28 Jan. 2025].

Sothebys (2016). (#33) DIANE ARBUS | ‘Child with a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N. Y. C.’ [online] Sothebys.com. Available at: https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/a-beautiful-life-photographs-from-the-collection-of-leland-hirsch-n09835/lot.33.html [Accessed 28 Jan. 2025].

Tauro, N. (2017). Worth a Thousand Words: Diane Arbus. [online] Nick Tauro Jr. Available at: https://www.nicktaurojr.com/blog-1/2017/7/17/worth-a-thousand-words-diane-arbus [Accessed 28 Jan. 2025].