Diane Arbus "Don't look away"

 Diane's picture of these two women is a study in black and white.  The subjects of the photograph look really happy, but because of the way they are dressed and their strange facial features they would have been laughed at.  This picture uses high depth of field to show the subject matter.

 Diane's photo of these four people looks like it could have been taken at Halloween.  They are all wearing masks which symbolises their hiding away from the world.  This was taken outside and is in black and white.  The thing that draws your eye in to this picture is the subject second from the left who is standing slightly forward from the crowd.

 Diane "made a name for herself photographing the people no one really wanted to see, the outcasts of society, the ones who make us uncomfortable". This picture was taken indoors.  You can see the shadow on the wall behind this man.  A picture like this is not shocking to us these days, but when Diane was taking these pictures society was not so tolerant of people who were different and therefore this would have been shocking or even repulsive to some people.  The photo is black and white and is not meant to make the subject look glamorous.  It is a picture of someone who is showing themselves as they really are.

 This picture of a child holding a hand grenade is very powerful.  It makes you feel uncomfortable because he is standing in a public park holding a bomb.  His facial expression is one of anger and his body language is tense and stiff.  The shadow of the tree is making a pattern on the floor which carries on throughout the rest of the picture.  You can see people walking towards the boy in the distance and they have a smaller child with them.  This adds to the disturbing atmosphere created by this piece.

 Diane has created this picture using low depth of field.  Again the subject is wearing a mask and appears to be standing in a field.  The subject is placed centrally in the picture.  There is a shadow leading away from the subject which draws your eye away from the main image of the picture.  This picture looks like it was taken on a sunny day. The sky has a chalky effect.

Diane's picture of these twin sisters is contradictory.  One is smiling and the other is looking sad.  The way they are standing shoulder to shoulder makes them look like they could be co-joined. The plain background makes them stand out and they are dressed in dark colours.  The viewers eye is drawn into the picture but it is easier to look at the twin who is smiling than the one who is not.