Diane Arbus: Sanctum Sanctorum

A new collection of photographs by Diane Arbus illuminates her singular ability to enter private worlds.

Diane Arbus: Sanctum Sanctorum brings together forty-four photographs made in private places across New York, New Jersey, California, and London between 1961 and 1971.

Through her singular combination of intelligence, charisma, intuition, and courage, Diane Arbus (1923-1971) was frequently invited into personal realms seldom seen by strangers. Though made in intimate settings, the photographs collected in this volume convey no sense of intrusion or trespass--instead, they reveal an unspoken exchange between photographer and subject, a moment of recognition in which confidences emerge freely and without judgment.

Arbus’s desire to know people embraced a vast spectrum of humanity. Her subjects featured in Sanctum Sanctorum include debutantes, nudists, celebrities, aspiring celebrities, socialites, transvestites, babies, widows, circus performers, lovers, female impersonators, and a blind couple in their bedroom. Through a fresh consideration of little-known photographs among works that may be more familiar, this publication invites viewers to discover aspects of even well-known images that have previously gone unnoticed.

Published on the occasion of the exhibitions presented jointly by David Zwirner, London, and Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, Sanctum Sanctorum is an invaluable addition to the understanding of one of the most daring and transformative photographers of the twentieth century.

Diane Arbus (1923-1971) is one of the most original and influential artists of the twentieth century. She studied photography with Berenice Abbott, Alexey Brodovitch, and Lisette Model and had her first published photographs appear in Esquire in 1960. In 1963 and 1966 she was awarded John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships and was one of three photographers whose work was the focus of New Documents, John Szarkowski’s landmark exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1967. Arbus’s depictions of couples, children, female impersonators, nudists, New York City pedestrians, suburban families, circus performers, and celebrities, among others, span the breadth of the postwar American social sphere and constitute a diverse and singularly compelling portrait of humanity.