Diane Arbus

Forty years ago today Diane Arbus committed suicide.

When I was nineteen and first introduced to Diane Arbus's work, I hated it and didn't understand it. Her work was breaking every rule of photography I had learned in my few years as a student and assistant. But that same year something compelled me to buy Diane Arbus's biography by Patricia Bosworth at a used book store. I read the biography three times within two years.

After reading more about her life, I had a better understanding of why she photographed the people she did and why she photographed them the way she did; I better understood the way she saw the world.

Afterwards, I had to get my hands on every Diane Arbus book I could find. To this day, Diane Arbus is one of my main sources of inspiration, and I will always wish I could have met her.

For more info check out the links below.

Diane Arbus Obituary, The Village Voice

Diane Arbus, Masters of Photography Video, 1972

Middletown, New York

2011 © Brian Adams

On Friday, Getty sent me up to Middletown, New York to photograph a doctor for a health magazine. Middletown is 75 miles north of Brooklyn and about three hours away by train. I left my house around noon, and after three train rides and a two mile walk, I arrived at 4pm just in time for the shoot. The shoot went well, and we finished by 5pm. At 6pm, the doctor I had been photographing was kind enough to give me a ride to the nearest Starbucks, which was 1 1/2 miles to the train station. I worked there until 8pm and then started my trek to the station, which isn't that far and on a normal day I wouldn't complain. But it was 104 degrees outside, and I was carrying a lot of photo gear, so if there had been someone there to complain to, well. Well.

Some things that surprised me about Middletown was the lack of sidewalks and street signs. I was walking around, relying on my iphone to guide me, and there were no street signs posted at ANY of the intersections. I ended up walking an extra mile that day because I was lost half of the time.

My train back into the city came at 10pm, which put me at my door around 1am. In total I spent about 12 hours of traveling for one hour of work. It was fun getting to see some of upstate New York from the train and getting away from the city for a day, but it was LONG and HOT. I will post some photos from the shoot as soon as they run in the magazine!

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Photos © 2011 Brian Adams

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