If you need a female photographer icon who broke boundaries in photography then check out Diana Arbus and her photography.

Arbus was known as the “photographer of freaks”. She took interest in photography subjects that were less than perfect verging on the odd, ugly and surreal.

The American photographer was also a writer and she was noted for her black and white square photographs of “deviant and marginal people or else of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.

How controversial was Arbus work? Normain Mailar one said “Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.”

Perhaps life does imitate art as Arbus commited suice in 1972. Her works, beautiful photograohy of strange people live forever.

1923 Born Diane Nemerov March 14, New York City.

1963 Guggenheim Fellowship

1965 – 1966 Arbus held a position as Instructor of Photography at Parson School of Design from 1965-1966.

1966 Guggenheim Fellowship

1968 – 1969 Arbus held a position as Instructor of Photography at Cooper Union from 1968-1969

1970 Received the Robert Leavitt Award

1970 – 1971 Arbus held a position as Instructor of Photography at Rhode Island School of Design from 1970-1971.

1971 Died July 26, New York City
Selected Exhibitions

2008 Times Square, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York City, NY

2007 June Bride, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York City, NY

2006 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (July 9 – October 8, 2006)

2005 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (February 28 – May 29, 2005) Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (June 17- September 18, 2005)
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (October 13, 2005 – January 15, 2006)

2004 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (February 29 – May 30, 2004)
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (June 27- August 29, 2004)

2003 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, “Diane Arbus Revelations”. (November 25, 2003 – February 8, 2004)

2000 – 2001 Galerie Karsten Greve, Cologne, Bermany, Diane Arbus (November 10 – January 20)

2000 Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Diane Arbus (May 25 – July 22)

1997 Galleria Photology, Milan, Diane Arbus: Women

1996 – 1997 Robert Miller Gallery. New York, Women (November 19, 1996 – January 4, 1997)

1996 PaceWildensteinMacGill, Los Angeles, Untitled: Diane Arbus (opened April 25)

1995 Robert Miller Gallery, New York, The Movies: Photographs from 1956 to 1958 (January 10 – February 4)

1992 Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, Diane Arbus Untitled 1970-71

1991 Ydessa Hendeles Art Foundation, Toronto, Diane Arbus [90 photographs, curated by Ydessa Hendeles]
Jane Corkin Gallery, Toronto, Diane Arbus [includes Portfolio]
Edwynn Houk Gallery, Chicago, Diane Arbus: Photographs [16 photographs]
Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, Diane Arbus [29 photographs]
Robert Miller Gallery, New York, Diane Arbus Untitled 1970-71 (November 19 – December 28) [30 photographs]