Diane Arbus American, 1923-1971 One of the most influential and enigmatic figures in American photography, Diane Arbus rejected the safety and security of her comfortable upbringing. She was driven to "photograph evil" as she found it both within and outside American middle- and upper-class society. Her powerful psychological portraits of the physically deformed and socially marginalized reflect the influence of Lisette Model, with whom Arbus studied in New York at the Ethical Culture and Fieldston Schools. Another source of inspiration was the work of Weegee (Arthur Fellig), known for his gritty photographs of New York City crime scenes in the 1930s-40s. Arbus (born Diane Nemerov in New York City) first took an interest in photography while working as an aide to her husband, fashion photographer-turned-actor Allan Arbus, whom she married in 1941 (divorced 1969). Her early subjects were traditional landscapes, nudes, and still lifes. She pursued more formal training in 1955-57, studying with Model. For the next five years, Arbus worked on freelance magazine projects. Esquire published her first photographs, "The Vertical Journey," in 1960. Assignments for Harper's Bazaar, Show, Glamour, and the New York Times Magazine soon followed. An important turning point came in 1962, when Arbus switched from 35mm to a square format and began making the portraits for which she is best known. She supported her work on the "rites, manners, and customs" with the assistance of two fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1963, 1966). During this time she also taught at the Parsons School of Design (1965 - 66) and Cooper Union (1968–69) in New York and at the Rhode Island School of Design (1970 - 71). In 1967 photographs by Arbus, Lee Friedlander, and Garry Winogrand were included in New Documents, the Museum of Modern Art's influential exhibition about the "new social landscape" of the 1960s. In July 1971, Arbus committed suicide. Although her work had appeared in three major museum group shows before her death, the event generated increased interest in, and controversy over, autobiographical readings by some observers of her images as projections of a troubled mind and spirit. One year later, 10 of Arbus's images were selected for inclusion in the Venice Biennale - the first work of an American photographer to be included in the venue. That same year, the Museum of Modern Art organized a traveling retrospective. Publications of her images include two major monographs, Diane Arbus (1972) and Diane Arbus, Magazine Work (1984). A.W.