Studying the photographic confrontation with the American middle-class’s cultural values in Diane Arbus’ work

The present paper looks upon one of the most influential periods in the history of the world and especially the United States; the revolutionary 60’s. It is most probable that among all the artists whose names are tied to this decade, Diane Arbus has the most ambiguous relation with the political atmosphere surrounding her. She never pointed her camera at the protests and the major figures during those years and instead devoted herself to shooting photographs of people who were marginalized by the society due to their physical or psychological characteristics. The present paper aims at this very ambiguous state of the relation between Arbus’ works and the sixties as well as an endeavor to reduce the intensity of this ambiguity or at least present some appropriate questions regarding it. For the purposes of this paper, library findings about Arbus’ works and the political atmosphere of the sixties were investigated using a critical method. The results demonstrated that there is agreement between Arbus and the protests during the sixties regarding how both of them turned away from the society dominating its outcasts. However, unlike the 60’s revolutionaries who considered this tendency as a chance to make a fundamental change, Arbus found it as a surrender and feeling of frustration in making changes.