Diane Arbus was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs, giants, transvestites, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal. A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid... that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freaks'; however, that phrase has been used repeatedly to describe her.
I am looking at her work because she produced a book of photographs produced in a ladies mental hospital. This collection of images really affected the way i felt once i flicked through. The book gave me an insight into mental health, and how it used to look in a hospital, which is helful as these photos where taken around the time the book was set.
The images inside the book are erie and at points disturbing, because of how vacant they look. I wanted to look at how she had approached taking the photographs. I found that yes as in her style they where all black and white, but a theme that was constant thought out the book was most seemed to be wearing halloween costumes. I feel like thus signifies how are concept as readers are usually quite scared of these people and i think by putting them in dress up makes the subject more approachable.
I found it interesting the concept of taking something familiar and combining it with thing not so, it almost builds a bridge of communication.
I firstly found this book intriguing because of how they have perceived as characters. I want to relate this my project where i am using a metaphor to build my communication bridge.
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