Revelations

Revelations – Aperture is reprinting this classic to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the posthumous 1972 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and the simultaneous publication of Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph.

Revelations explores the origins, scope and aspirations of Arbus’s wholly original voice. Diane Arbus’s frank treatment of her subjects and her belief in the intrinsic power of the medium have produced a body of work that is often shocking in its purity, in its unwavering celebration of things as they are. The presentation of a large number of his lesser-known or unpublished photographs in the context of iconic images reveals a subtle but persistent vision of the world.

The book reproduces two hundred full-page duotones of Diane Arbus photographs spanning her entire career. It also includes a new contribution by Sarah Meister, director of Aperture, as well as essays by Sandra S. Phillips, curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and a discussion of Diane Arbus’ printing techniques by Neil Selkirk, the only person authorized to print her photographs since her death. A detailed chronology, written by Elisabeth Sussman, guest curator of the exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Doon Arbus, the artist’s eldest daughter, is illustrated by over three hundred additional images and composed mainly of extracts from the artist’s letters, notebooks and other writings, constituting a kind of autobiography.

An afterword by Doon Arbus precedes biographical notes on the photographer’s friends and colleagues, compiled by Jeff L. Rosenheim, curator in charge of the photography department at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. These texts help to clarify the meaning of Diane Arbus’s controversial and astonishing vision.