Susan Sontag (on photography) has argued that Diane Arbus's photographs suggest "a world in which everybody is an alien, hopelessly isolated, immobilized in mechanical, crippled identities and relationships". Critically discuss this view of Arbus's work

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Susan Sontag (on photography) has argued that Diane Arbus’s photographs suggest “a world in which everybody is an alien, hopelessly isolated, immobilized in mechanical, crippled identities and relationships”. Critically discuss this view of Arbus’s work.

On Photography by Susan Sontag discusses in great length the work of Diane Arbus. Because of this it is important to work closely with the book in determining Sontag’s main arguments and observations. In her above statement and in the essay Sontag takes the photographer Diane Arbus and raises her to the level of Artist. This is essential if we are to analyse Arbus’ work. Her photography is less about technique and more about an artist concept. Sontag in the essay is very much putting forward photography as an artistic medium. What is essential to note when addressing Sontags above quote is that she was comparing Arbus’ approach to photography with Edward Steichens. Her comparison quite truly sees Steichen’s work portraying the human race living and dying in the same way. His “family of man” exhibition is described as “art that could make human beings aware of their common humanity”1 Sontag is therefore arguing that arbus is the antithesis of Steichen. This is indeed very true and allows us to use Steichen as an opposite in our analysis of Arbus’ “Freaks”

The Immediate reaction to Sontag’s quote is that Arbus’s Photographs display not just the Horrors of Western society but the unique horrors. Alien is a strong choice of word, it immediately conjures up the idea that none of us are alike. Because Arbus’s work is solely visual, with little or no notes on her photographs it is visual examples of individuality that we look for. Arbus separates people with the camera; she puts them into a separate box away from everybody else. Even her portrait of two twin girls seems to draw a line between them (one is smiling, the other is not). “The Photographs of deviates and real freaks do not accent their pain but, rather, their detachment and autonomy” 2 Additionally it is her technique that individualises each portrait. Her use of flash and using square negatives separates her subjects ever more "Her use of flash both served to isolate the subjects and also to give them a theatrical or even surreal quality" 3 While the latter half of that quote is perhaps not entirely true, surreal not quite being the right word to describe the effect the flash has on her subject. The flash does of course lend to the isolation of the subject which is in Sontag’s view Arbus’s aim.

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To the right is an example of Arbus’s use of flash to single out her subject. The man is well lit, his expression captured and he is singled out from the background. Full concentration is on him.

  1. Whitney museum of American art,
  2. Susan Sontag, on photography, penguin,1977, p36
  3. Peter Marshall, Diane Arbus,

Arbus approaches her subjects with a neutral style, allowing for total honesty of the subject. This lack of compassion is so important in her work, as she does not cheapen ...

This is a preview of the whole essay