DIANE ARBUS. OPEN QUESTIONS FOR AESTHETICS IN PHOTOGRAPHY

Abstract

Considering Diane Arbus’s images as recipients of a provocative display of grotesque, alienated human realities, we analyze in our paper, the growing familiarity with oddity in modern art, as well as its effects in the development of aesthetic perception. Commenting on Arbus's work as a good example of a leading tendency in capitalist countries, Sontag observes that it reduces moral and sensory queasiness, pointing at America as the grave of the Occident. Using these premises, we discuss photography as a means to challenge materialist civilization by presenting it as a freak show, as a deep wasteland.