"I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them"
About this Quote
Arbus is staking a claim that’s equal parts artistic mission and quiet provocation: reality isn’t self-evident, and “seeing” is not the same as merely looking. The line sounds modest - “I really believe” - but it’s a hard assertion of agency. She isn’t saying the world lacks these things; she’s saying the world lacks the willingness, language, or nerve to register them until a photograph forces the encounter.
The verb choice matters. “Would see” implies both visibility and permission. Arbus’s camera becomes a kind of social crowbar, prying open subjects polite culture prefers to keep shut: people on the margins, the uncanny inside the ordinary, the emotional voltage in faces that don’t perform “normal” for the viewer’s comfort. The subtext is that society trains attention selectively; the photograph can reroute that attention, even against the viewer’s instincts.
Context sharpens the edge. Working in mid-century America, Arbus turned away from glossy fashion work toward portraits that unsettled the era’s hunger for curated wholesomeness. Her images don’t simply document “difference”; they interrogate the viewer’s appetite to categorize, pity, or stare. The quote implicitly defends that uncomfortable proximity: the ethical controversy around her work (exploitation vs. recognition) is already anticipated here, framed as necessity.
It also reveals a modernist faith with a twist: art doesn’t mirror the world, it manufactures visibility. Arbus isn’t claiming omniscience; she’s admitting complicity. If no one would see it without her, then the act of photographing isn’t neutral reportage - it’s an intervention, with consequences.
The verb choice matters. “Would see” implies both visibility and permission. Arbus’s camera becomes a kind of social crowbar, prying open subjects polite culture prefers to keep shut: people on the margins, the uncanny inside the ordinary, the emotional voltage in faces that don’t perform “normal” for the viewer’s comfort. The subtext is that society trains attention selectively; the photograph can reroute that attention, even against the viewer’s instincts.
Context sharpens the edge. Working in mid-century America, Arbus turned away from glossy fashion work toward portraits that unsettled the era’s hunger for curated wholesomeness. Her images don’t simply document “difference”; they interrogate the viewer’s appetite to categorize, pity, or stare. The quote implicitly defends that uncomfortable proximity: the ethical controversy around her work (exploitation vs. recognition) is already anticipated here, framed as necessity.
It also reveals a modernist faith with a twist: art doesn’t mirror the world, it manufactures visibility. Arbus isn’t claiming omniscience; she’s admitting complicity. If no one would see it without her, then the act of photographing isn’t neutral reportage - it’s an intervention, with consequences.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
|---|---|
| Source | Wikiquote entry 'Diane Arbus' — contains the quote "I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them." |
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