Diane Arbus: Untitled

Just received yesterday. Beautiful book; Untitled was in my collection years ago. Feeling so much for the work,I gave copy to special friend.In black and white, Diane Arbus captured the essence of these mentally challenged children.I think it's her best work...She seemed to think so too, at the time. There are no words; no wise explanations;Each photograph depicts the story of living in a home for the mentally retarded in the early 1970's. Their concernsspeak volumes today in timeless fashion.

great photography from a uniquely creative artist! this is a great book to have in your collection!

Artful and endearing

I bought this as a Christmas present for a friend and he loves the book. Dian Arbus was a prolific photographer and this book has many great pictures.

I've been wanting to get this book for a long time and finally got round to doing so. The subject matter (portraits taken of patients at residences for the "mentally retarded" in 1969 - 71) is challenging and frankly sometimes disturbing. During those years people with learning difficulties were obviously simply locked away so were never seen. In our modern more "liberal" times we like to feel that this is not the case anymore and that most intelligent people do not see these conditions as a "problem" when in fact this is not true at all. These photographs show unflinchingly what is is still there on the fringes of our society. The photos are all portraits, mostly taken at parties. Some are funny, some are joyful but some, such as Halloween are frankly, downright scary. (I am reminded to a degree of Eyes Wide Shut with the masks - even a paper bag on someone's head becomes frightening.) There is however no sense of voyeurism strangely. This is a case of straightforward people, safe in their environment with no reason to hide, just having fun enjoying having their photo taken. There is no self-consciousness just a natural sense of self and we are reminded that it is us, the viewer, who have projected our fears and prejudices forward. Altogether, a wonderful book, highly recommended.. Full marks to the seller also with the book arriving promptly and carefully packaged. Big thumbs up!

The quality of light in most of these photographs is something to behold. Nice tones too. The reproductions in this book are of excellent quality and the format is quite large. Arbus' unique "Eye" is apparent throughout - these pictures are so obviously hers. One thing I would like to say is that I'm not sure you would be allowed to take photographs of inpatients in this day and age, which is probably a good thing. For that reason I'm giving it four stars instead of five.

great photos but unexpectedly for a US photographer the text was in german!.... guess I shld have returned it but too busy and probably understood enough of it to get the gist

Book was marked as "new" but arrived with a scratch on the front that went THROUGH the shrink wrap and the paper of the cover. Was supposed to be a gift for my partner and now it's too late to return it. Not pleased.

this is a brilliant book . I recommend it to anybody who is serious about photography and photographing people. She was really wonder great and changed photography and how we look at people completely,It was thanks to her that I got into photography in the first place. When I looked at one of her images when I was about 12 so as I said I highly recommend it to anybody