Amy Arbus
Amy Arbus | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, New York, U.S. | April 16, 1954
Occupation | Photographer |
Years active | 1976-present |
Parent | Allan & Diane Arbus |
Relatives | sister Doon Arbus |
Amy Arbus (born April 16, 1954) is an American, New York City-based, photographer. She teaches portraiture at the International Center of Photography, Anderson Ranch,[1] NORD photography[2] and the Fine Arts Work Center. She has published several books of photography, including The Fourth Wall which The New Yorker called her "masterpiece."[3] Her work has appeared in over 100 periodicals including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Architectural Digest, and The New York Times Magazine.[4] She is the daughter of actor Allan Arbus and photographer Diane Arbus, the sister of writer and journalist Doon Arbus, and the niece of distinguished poet Howard Nemerov.[5][6]
Life and work
"On the Street"
From 1980 to 1990, Arbus had a monthly street style column in the Village Voice's entitled "On the Street".[7] On starting with the Village Voice, Arbus said that "I went to the Voice with a portfolio that I had taken of one woman, my friend Jan Collins...All they said to me was 'take a picture of anyone who makes you turn your head.'"[8] These photographs explore performances of self and the ways in which people used fashion as an expression of creativity.[9] Her column often featured portraits of celebrities and tastemakers early in their careers including Madonna, fashion designer Anna Sui, nightlife impresario Susanne Bartsch, Andre Walker and The Clash.[8] Arbus shot her subjects from slightly below to "suggest they were monuments."[7]
In 2006, Welcome Books published On the Street : 1980-1990,[10] a collection of more than 70 of the most influential images from Arbus' time at the Village Voice, those that "lend a voice to an era when individuality and self-expression were fighting for breathing room in a culture that valued economics over creativity."[11] John Spellos then created a documentary called On the Street[12] following Arbus as she tracked down the subjects of these photographs 25 years after they were taken.
Recent Work
In a talk at UCLA's Hammer Museum, Arbus described her reluctance to become a photographer and her years studying at the Berklee College of Music and hanging out with The Cars (then still unknown), before studying at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[13] In an interview published in The Guardian, she explains her initial reluctance to enter the field of photography, stating, "I was holding myself back, afraid to compete with this legend... But I remember the minute the viewfinder came up to my eye, I thought, I'm home."[14]
Publications
- No Place Like Home (1986).
- The Inconvenience of Being Born (1999).
- On the Street 1980–1990 (2006).
- The Fourth Wall (2008).
- After Images (2013).
Collections
Her work is held in the following public collections:
- New York Public Library.[15]
- Museum of Modern Art, New York.[16]
See also
References
- ^ "Anderson Ranch Arts Center". Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
- ^ "MEET OUR FACULTY | NORD Photography". www.nordphotography.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ^ Als, Hilton (2008-05-19). "Show People". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ^ "Amy Arbus Photography | About | Bio". www.amyarbus.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ^ Thurman, Judith (2003-10-13). "Exposure Time". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
- ^ Heron, Liz; Williams, Val (1996-01-01). Illuminations: Women Writing on Photography from the 1850s to the Present. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822317923.
- ^ a b Goldberg, Vicki (2014-03-20). "Amy Arbus: 'On the Street 1980-1990'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ^ a b AnOther. "Amy Arbus on 80s Street Style Photography". AnOther. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ^ "NPR Exclusive: On The Street, Then And Now". NPR.org. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ^ Arbus, Amy; Homes, A. M (2006-01-01). On the street: 1980-1990. New York: Welcome Books. ISBN 1599620154.
- ^ "On the Street". welcomebooks.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ^ "On the Street". Elephant Eye Films.
- ^ [1] Archived September 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Christopher Turner: Desperately seeking Diane?". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
- ^ "Photographs by Amy Arbus - NYPL Digital Collections". digitalcollections.nypl.org. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ^ "MuseumofModernArt/collection". GitHub. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
External links
- American photographers
- Commercial photographers
- Portrait photographers
- 1954 births
- Living people
- American people of Russian-Jewish descent
- American women photographers
- Jewish American artists
- Photographers from New York
- The New Yorker people
- Rolling Stone people
- Vanity Fair (magazine) people
- The Village Voice people
- 20th-century American photographers
- 21st-century American photographers
- 20th-century women artists
- 21st-century women artists