Diane

Arbus
Gender/ Gaze/ Otherness

Henry Bailey and Valeria Arnaoutou

How do we represent people and places that are

signicantly dierent from us? Why is dierence so
compelling a theme?
Arbus saw in everybody a
aw.
Photography was a medium
that enabled her to freeze-
frame these momental
idenIIes that where taken
over for a moment by the
aw, even so-called
normal people became
Arbused and entered the
world of freaks
A ower girl at a wedding

 Ben Johnson winning the 1988

Olympics.
This image relates to the work of
Dianne arbus due to the gap
between what we see and what
we are being asked to view.
The image at rst glance looks
like an image of unqualied
triumph.
But the capIon suggests to the
reader there is more to this
photo, a connotaIve meaning -
the drug story, this can be a
picture of disgrace or triumph.

Arbus photographs confront their

subjects, their eyes oVen making
direct contact with the camera. In
doing so, there is a sense of seeing
inside the person, which oVen
reveals a conict between
appearance and idenIty.
S/he is mascular and solidly built
but her/his pose is feminine. Her/
his steadfast gaze self-assuredly
challenges the viewer through the
coexistence of opposites with her/
his person.
Dianne Arbus is known for works
that both aunt and humanize
abnormality, disability, and
aberrancy, frequently used
transvesItes as photographic
subject.
It challenges us to refute the noIon
of gender as an abiding substance
and, hence, to consider that we are
looking at neither a man nor a
woman.

Naked man being a women 1968

 Here is an image of Carl Lewis,

photographed for a Pirelli
adverIsement.
In this photo masculinity is
disturbed and undercut by the
invocaIon of his femininity.
Like the work of diane arbus,
Carl Lewis in this photo can
represent femininity or the
feminine side of masculinity
because he can mark his
dierence causing conict
between appearance and
idenIty.
Meaning depends on the
dierence between opposites.
Opposites have the great value
of capturing the diversity of the
world with their extremes and
are also a way of providing
meaning.

Any QuesIons?

References
Hall, S. 1997. Representa)on: Cultural representa)on and signifying
prac)ses. 2nd ed. London: SAGE PublicaIons
Kim, E. 2012. 11 Lessons Diane Arbus can teach you about street
photography. Retrieved from:
hgp://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/10/15/11-lessons-
diane-arbus-can-teach-you-about-street-photography/
Lee, S. 2013. Diane Arbus: Otherness, trauma and historical
narra)vity. Retrieved from:
hgp://www.so-rimlee.com/a-lonely-impulse-of-delight/2013/6/27/
diane-arbus-otherness-trauma-and-historical-narraIvity.html
WhiIng, S. 2012. Troubling gender with Diane Arbus. Retrieved
from:
hgp://pyxisjournal.com/issues/2012/12/9/troubling-gender-with-
diane-arbus