The disruptive representation of Diane Arbus: from the documental to the allegorical

Author(s)

Emy Kuramoto

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Artes
• Defense date: 2006-08-30

Examining board members

Mauricius Martins Farina; Iara Lís Franco Schiavinatto; Mauricio Lissovsky

• Advisor: Mauricius Martins Farina

Abstract

This work attempts to investigate the oeuvre of the photographer Diane Arbus (1923-1971). Firstly focusing on the main discussions that surrounded her, emphasizing the mythic and allegoric component that traverses her work and, subsequently, descrying and discussing, in the form of essays, some peculiar motifs and aspects of her images. We debate the rupture with the classic documentarism; the points of inflexion of her career and of her representative style; the ironic exercise of her photography; the creation of a particular universe, the filiations with the carnivalesque; the renitent presence of fancy dresses and masks in her work -as much in the strict meaning (as referents) as in the metaphoric sense-; her parodistic facet; the traits relating to her images¿s ambience; and, at last, her biographic and professional journey (AU)