Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye)
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2010 |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | http://hdl.handle.net/10451/39374 |
Resumo: | Diane Arbus’ photographs are mainly about difference. Most of the time she is trying ‘[…] to suppress, or at least reduce, moral and sensory queasiness’ (Sontag 1977: 40) in order to represent a world where the subject of the photograph is not merely the ‘other’ but also the I. Her technique does not coax her subjects into natural poses. Instead she encourages them to be strange and awkward. By posing for her, the revelation of the self is identified with what is odd. This paper aims at understanding the geography of difference that, at the same time, is also of resistance, since Diane Arbus reveals what was forcefully hidden by bringing it into light in such a way that it is impossible to ignore. Her photographs display a poetic beauty that is not only of the ‘I’ but also of the ‘eye’. The world that is depicted is one in which we are all the same. She “atomizes” reality by separating each element and ‘Instead of showing identity between things which are different […] everybody is shown to look the same.’ (Sontag 1977: 47). Furthermore, this paper analyses some of Arbus’ photographs so as to explain this point of view, by trying to argue that between rejecting and reacting against what is standardized she does not forget the geography of the body which is also a geography of the self. While creating a new imagetic topos, where what is trivial becomes divine, she also presents the frailty of others as our own. |
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Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye)Arbus, Diane, 1923-1971PhotographyFreaksIdentityPerformanceDiane Arbus’ photographs are mainly about difference. Most of the time she is trying ‘[…] to suppress, or at least reduce, moral and sensory queasiness’ (Sontag 1977: 40) in order to represent a world where the subject of the photograph is not merely the ‘other’ but also the I. Her technique does not coax her subjects into natural poses. Instead she encourages them to be strange and awkward. By posing for her, the revelation of the self is identified with what is odd. This paper aims at understanding the geography of difference that, at the same time, is also of resistance, since Diane Arbus reveals what was forcefully hidden by bringing it into light in such a way that it is impossible to ignore. Her photographs display a poetic beauty that is not only of the ‘I’ but also of the ‘eye’. The world that is depicted is one in which we are all the same. She “atomizes” reality by separating each element and ‘Instead of showing identity between things which are different […] everybody is shown to look the same.’ (Sontag 1977: 47). Furthermore, this paper analyses some of Arbus’ photographs so as to explain this point of view, by trying to argue that between rejecting and reacting against what is standardized she does not forget the geography of the body which is also a geography of the self. While creating a new imagetic topos, where what is trivial becomes divine, she also presents the frailty of others as our own.As fotografias de Diane Arbus são, na sua maioria, sobre diferença. Em grande parte delas ela tenta, nas palavras de Susan Sontag, suprimir ou reduzir “[a] moral and sensory queasiness” (Sontag 1977: 40) de forma a apresentar um mundo onde o sujeito fotografado não é apenas o ‘outro’, mas também o ‘eu’. A sua técnica não envolve a persuasão dos seus sujeitos para agirem de forma natural. Muito pelo contrário, ela instiga-os a agir de forma estranha e distraída. Ao posarem para ela, a revelação do ‘eu’ identifica-se com aquilo que é estranho. Este artigo pretende compreender esta geografia da diferença que, ao mesmo tempo, é também uma geografia da resistência, uma vez que Diane Arbus mostra aquilo que está forçosamente escondido, revelando-o de tal forma que é impossível ignorá-lo. As suas fotografias desvendam uma beleza poética que não pertence apenas ao ‘eu’, mas também ao olho que observa e fotografa. O mundo que é mostrado é um em que todos somos o mesmo. Ao atomizar a realidade e separar cada elemento, ela apresenta um mundo onde todos somos iguais, de uma forma ou de outra (Sontag 1977). Para além disso, este artigo analisa algumas das fotografias de Arbus de forma a poder exemplificar melhor o argumento aqui apresentado. Aquilo que tento argumentar é que entre a rejeição e a reacção contra aquilo que está institucionalizado ela não esquece uma certa geografia do corpo que é também uma geografia da representação do eu. Ao mesmo tempo Arbus também cria um novo topos imagético, onde eleva o trivial ao banal, apresentando, no fundo, a fragilidade dos outros como sendo nossa.ISCAPRepositório da Universidade de LisboaDuarte, José2019-09-02T08:55:17Z2010-11-152010-11-15T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10451/39374engDuarte, José (2010). “Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye)”. Revista Polissema. Porto: ISCAP, 143-155.1645-1937info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2023-11-08T16:38:04Zoai:repositorio.ul.pt:10451/39374Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-19T21:53:15.542621Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye) |
title |
Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye) |
spellingShingle |
Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye) Duarte, José Arbus, Diane, 1923-1971 Photography Freaks Identity Performance |
title_short |
Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye) |
title_full |
Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye) |
title_fullStr |
Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye) |
title_sort |
Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye) |
author |
Duarte, José |
author_facet |
Duarte, José |
author_role |
author |
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv |
Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Duarte, José |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
Arbus, Diane, 1923-1971 Photography Freaks Identity Performance |
topic |
Arbus, Diane, 1923-1971 Photography Freaks Identity Performance |
description |
Diane Arbus’ photographs are mainly about difference. Most of the time she is trying ‘[…] to suppress, or at least reduce, moral and sensory queasiness’ (Sontag 1977: 40) in order to represent a world where the subject of the photograph is not merely the ‘other’ but also the I. Her technique does not coax her subjects into natural poses. Instead she encourages them to be strange and awkward. By posing for her, the revelation of the self is identified with what is odd. This paper aims at understanding the geography of difference that, at the same time, is also of resistance, since Diane Arbus reveals what was forcefully hidden by bringing it into light in such a way that it is impossible to ignore. Her photographs display a poetic beauty that is not only of the ‘I’ but also of the ‘eye’. The world that is depicted is one in which we are all the same. She “atomizes” reality by separating each element and ‘Instead of showing identity between things which are different […] everybody is shown to look the same.’ (Sontag 1977: 47). Furthermore, this paper analyses some of Arbus’ photographs so as to explain this point of view, by trying to argue that between rejecting and reacting against what is standardized she does not forget the geography of the body which is also a geography of the self. While creating a new imagetic topos, where what is trivial becomes divine, she also presents the frailty of others as our own. |
publishDate |
2010 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2010-11-15 2010-11-15T00:00:00Z 2019-09-02T08:55:17Z |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
http://hdl.handle.net/10451/39374 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10451/39374 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
Duarte, José (2010). “Diane Arbus: The wonderful wizard of Odds or the poetics of the I (eye)”. Revista Polissema. Porto: ISCAP, 143-155. 1645-1937 |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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openAccess |
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application/pdf |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
ISCAP |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
ISCAP |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação instacron:RCAAP |
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Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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RCAAP |
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RCAAP |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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