Who is Diane Arbus?

When I was in college I took a photography course. This was back in the days when film was developed and we learned dark room as well as picture taking. As a sociology major I took the course pass/fail something my teacher found insulting. ok

I took a picture of two couples, two of my mother's brothers and their wives. They were just sitting in a row, but I thought it had an Arbus quality to it. I worked it hard in the dark room. The teacher called it a snap shot. What he should have said was that it was "derivative at best, and just a poor, immature copy at worst". He should have asked me who I thought I was to try to imitate a great master. But what he said was that it was a 'snap shot'.

And of course, the snapshot criticism is what a lot of her critics claimed. While I am not in her class, but rather a kindergardener to her post PhD, I do know great photography when I see it. To look at an Arbus photograph is to be lost in all the possibilities that were invisible until she took the picture.