Diane Arbus

I have confession to make: I am in love with Diane Arbus. Anybody who was in my photo history class or has ever heard me talk about her is quite aware of this I'm sure. I was introduced to her work about a year ago by my roommate, Charla. I had seen her work before, but never really seen it, you know? And thus the infatuation began. It was small at first, but then once I started researching her for my photo history paper, I really became obsessed with her theory. She was so facinating and completely strange. If you ever get a chance, read this introduction that she wrote that opens up her Aperature Monograph. It is really interesting and kind of sums it all up. So I think what I'm getting at is that I love her, and I feel a lot like her in the sense that I collect people. She once said that she is in a way making her own personal Noah's Ark and that she "can't bear to keep anyone out". I think about this everytime I proof images of the interesting people I meet on a daily basis and just can't seem to delete their images because in a weird way they are mine because I have them in a moment. When Arbus died a book with contact sheets with thousands of different people was found, it was the catologue she used, photographing people and then later she would flip through it and go back and make portraits of the most interesting from her own personal collection of people.

Anyways, I dedicate this photograph to Diane Arbus. Not because I think these children are freaks much like those she photographed, but because I feel like this is a very Arbus-inspired image. Or maybe not. Maybe I just really want to rant about my love for Arbus and I'm using this as an excuse. Who knows, all I know is I love her and here is a photograph I took of children living in a coffee plantation.