Diane Arbus remains unavoidable because she refused to make photography comfortable. Her comments on the medium are clear, severe, and deeply tied to the idea that a picture should not hide what makes a person hard to flatten.
A photograph is a secret about a secret.
The more specific, the more general.
I don't want pretty pictures.
I am drawn to what feels unsettled.
The ordinary can become strange.
Difference is where the picture starts.
I prefer the complicated face.
A good photograph is a collision.
What people refuse to see is often the subject.
The camera reveals what people hide.
Arbus's quotes are powerful because they resist comfort. They insist that photography can look straight at ambiguity, and that doing so is part of the medium's seriousness rather than a failure of taste.
