Diane Arbus

The pieces of work that we've examined so far have shown me that not only is Diane Arbus a terrific photographer, but also an artist with excellent judgment. In high school, I took a photography class and found that not only was it difficult to physically snap a great shot, but it is equally challenging to choose which photograph captures a moment or expression best. This understanding brings me closer to Diane Arbus's thought process when not only reviewing her work, but also in reading her quotations. Upon reviewing the quotations, the one that I found most interesting was the one in which she states that a picture she takes is always better or worse than she thought it would be. Some may say this discredits Arbus's work in making her profession seem much more like a guessing game. I however believe that journalistic and artistic photography differ in the sense that artistic photography is created, where as journalistic is found. Diane Arbus's job is not to set up something aesthetically pleasing for critics to judge. Instead she is paid to capsulize a moment, event or expression of a person place or thing. Many might challenge this with an argument that claims her profession is merely luck. I would contest that statement with, "her portfolio of photographs suggests she is in fact the luckiest woman on the planet."