Diane Nemerov was one of the lucky ones, insulated from the Great Depression because her father owned Russek's, the famous Fifth Avenue department store. She grew up amongst wealth and artists. Her father became a painter when he retired; her sister was a sculptor; and her brother Howard Nemerov would become a US Poet Laureate.
Diane Nemerov married her high school sweetheart, Allan Arbus, and became Diane Arbus.
A visit to the Alfred Stieglitz gallery brought the couple, who already had a budding interest in photography, inspiration. Diane's father hired the couple to do the advertisement for the store. Allan would photograph the war for the U.S. Army Signal Corps and after the war the couple started a commercial photography business.
Though they both hated the fashion world 200 pages of their editorials would make it into Glamour and 80 into the pages of the fabled Vogue. This work has been described as being of "middling quality".
In 1956 Diane quit the commercial photography business. Two years later she and Allan separated. They divorced in 1969, but Diane had come well into her own. Her notable photographs, with their sometimes controversal subjects, for which Diane is known and remembered though in 1971 she told Lisette Model (another female photographer) that she "hated them".
On October 18th (until February 5, 2012) the Jeu de Paume will have an exhibition dedicated to Diane's work. This is the first such exhibition in France and will include all her major works and many never viewed before by the public.
I of course am going to be one of the first people in the queue, if I can't get my hands on some tickets for whatever is happening before it opens to the public. Below are some images of Diane's most famous photograph, Boy With Toy Grenade Central Park taken in 1962.
Diane Nemerov married her high school sweetheart, Allan Arbus, and became Diane Arbus.
A visit to the Alfred Stieglitz gallery brought the couple, who already had a budding interest in photography, inspiration. Diane's father hired the couple to do the advertisement for the store. Allan would photograph the war for the U.S. Army Signal Corps and after the war the couple started a commercial photography business.
Though they both hated the fashion world 200 pages of their editorials would make it into Glamour and 80 into the pages of the fabled Vogue. This work has been described as being of "middling quality".
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| Vogue 1953. Click to view larger image. |
On October 18th (until February 5, 2012) the Jeu de Paume will have an exhibition dedicated to Diane's work. This is the first such exhibition in France and will include all her major works and many never viewed before by the public.
I of course am going to be one of the first people in the queue, if I can't get my hands on some tickets for whatever is happening before it opens to the public. Below are some images of Diane's most famous photograph, Boy With Toy Grenade Central Park taken in 1962.
