Diane Arbus - Intimate Portraits

Photographer Diane Arbus was born 100 years ago and died more than 50 years ago, but her photographs have retained their extraordinary and unsettling power. Alvin Hall sets out to ask why.

After Arbus' suicide in 1971 and the 1972 MoMA exhibition which launched her posthumous fame, attention has often focused on her death and the more lurid details of her biography. Alvin and a cast of artists, photographers, writers and curators turn instead to consider her art.

In a series of encounters recorded on location in Arbus' home city of New York, and through the photographer's own words, they set out to evoke the atmosphere and power of her photographs, their creation and the influence they've had over generations of photographers who have wrestled with how to make portraits after Arbus.

Featuring responses to Arbus' work from photographers Tina Barney, Ming Smith, Bill Jacobson and Deana Lawson. Alvin also speaks to Roxana Marcoci, Senior Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; journalist and biographer Arthur Lubow; Elisabeth Sussman, Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art; and curator, writer and photography critic Vince Aletti.

Diane Arbus' readings are edited selections from the film Going Where I've Never Been: The Photography of Diane Arbus (1972), voiced by Mariclare Costello.

Writer and Presenter - Alvin Hall

Producer - Michael Umney

Executive Producer - Susan Marling

Mixing Engineer - Chris O'Shaughnessy

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4

Photograph of Alvin Hall by Kendall Messick

Alvin Hall considers the unique vision and contested legacy of photographer Diane Arbus.

Alvin Hall considers Diane Arbus's unique work and controversial legacy. Where do her images get their strange power from and how has her vision transformed photography?

Photographer Diane Arbus was born in 1923 and committed suicide in 1971, but her photographs retain their extraordinary and unsettling power.

Alvin Hall sets out to ask why?

After Arbus' death and the 1972 New York MoMA exhibition which launched her posthumous fame, attention has often focused on her death and the more lurid details of her biography.

Alvin also speaks to:

* Senior Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Roxana Marcoci

* Journalist and biographer, Arthur Lubow;

* Elisabeth Sussman

* Curator of Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Sondra Gilman

* Curator, writer and photography critic, Vince Aletti

Diane Arbus' readings are edited selections from the 1972 film ‘Going Where I've Never Been: The Photography of Diane Arbus', voiced by Mariclare Costello.

Written and presented by Alvin Hall.

Producer: Michael Umney

A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in 2023.

What is the unique vision and contested legacy of photographer Diane Arbus?

Alvin Hall considers photographer Diane Arbus's unique and controversial legacy. How has her vision transformed photography? From 2023.

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