Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph (1972) is widely considered one of the most influential photography books ever published, cementing Arbus's legacy and permanently altering the trajectory of modern documentary photography.

Published a year after Arbus's death in conjunction with a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art curated by John Szarkowski, the book was meticulously designed and edited by her daughter Doon Arbus alongside Marvin Israel. The monograph features a deliberately spare and recessive layout, isolating the images on the right-hand pages with only discreet captions on the left. This design choice forces the viewer into a direct, unmediated confrontation with her subjects. Arbus famously replaced mid-century humanist photography with a vision that was both pitiless and deeply empathetic, focusing on marginalized individuals, performers, and ordinary people whose eccentricities were laid completely bare.

This very first printing of the book is the only publication to include the image Two girls in identical raincoats, Central Park, N.Y.C., 1969. While the book was reprinted many times, the plate was abruptly removed from all subsequent printings and editions.

While official archival records on the removal are sparse, it is widely understood within the photobook community that the family of the young subjects objected to the photograph's inclusion, prompting the publisher to pull the image entirely. Consequently, this abrupt modification to the publication's layout renders the true first edition a scarce and historically significant volume.

In May 1971, Artforum, bastion of late modernism, featured the work of a photographer for the very first time. On its cover and in a six-page spread, it published selections from Diane Arbus's portfolio, A box of ten photographs. In the words of the magazine's editor and photography skeptic, Philip Leider, "The portfolio changed everything . . . one could no longer deny [photography's] status as art."At the time of Arbus's death, two months later, only four of the intended edition of fifty had been sold. Two had been purchased from Arbus by Richard Avedon (the first for himself, the second as a gift for his friend Mike Nichols); another was purchased by Jasper Johns; and a fourth by Bea Feitler, art director at Harper's Bazaar. Arbus signed the prints in all four sets; each print was accompanied by an interleaving vellum slip-sheet inscribed with an extended caption. For Feitler, Arbus added an eleventh photograph, A woman with her baby monkey, N.J., 1971.Acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, in 1986 ' and the only one of the four completed and sold by Arbus that is publicly held ' that portfolio was the subject of an exhibition on view in 2018. This exceptional book replicates the nature of Diane Arbus's original and now legendary object. Smithsonian curator John P. Jacob, who has unearthed a trove of new information in preparing the book and exhibition, weaves a fascinating tale of the creation, production, and continuing repercussions of this seminal work. Published by Aperture in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.

Diane Arbus: Sanctum Sanctorum brings together forty-five 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 in 2025.

In 1967, The Museum of Modern Art presented New Documents, a landmark exhibition organized by John Szarkowski that brought together a selection of works by three photographers whose individual achievements signaled the artistic potential for the medium in the 1960s and beyond: Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand.

Though largely unknown at the time, these three photographers are now universally acknowledged as artists of singular talent within the history of photography. The exhibition articulated a profound shift in the landscape of 20th-century photography, and interest in the exhibition has only continued to expand. Yet, until now, there has been no publication that captures its content.

Published in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the exhibition, Arbus Friedlander Winogrand features full-page reproductions of the 94 photographs included in the exhibition, along with Szarkowski's original wall text, press release, installation views and an abundance of archival material. Essays by curator Sarah Hermanson Meister and critic Max Kozloff, who originally reviewed the exhibition for The Nation in 1967, critically situate the exhibition and its reception, and examine its lasting influence on the field of photography.