Curated by the Jeu de Paume
She died too young, she lived too off-kilter, and her work was too sensationalized. From the beginning, Diane Arbus (1923–1971) made images that became as well known for what they depicted as for the controversy her acts of depiction inspired—debates about the “ethics” of photographing others so apparently other. But why shouldn’t we take interest in others, and they in us? Why not stare in wonderment, as Arbus did, at the human freak show by which we’re surrounded, indeed that also includes us? Now that the years have passed and photography has become something else, it is time that Arbus’s peculiar, uncomfortable genius be recognized in France. At long last this fall, more than two hundred of the American photographer’s works will go on view at the Jeu de Paume.
