For my shrine to Diane Arbus, I decided to incorporate both the general timeline of her career, as well as several smaller details about her personality and life. Diane came from a fairly well off background, and her family made their money from a store that sold primarily furs and coats. Diane hated the business and her wealth, so i wanted to give the other elements of the shrine a sense of being weighed down or held in by the coat. I embroidered my elegy on the coat to give it a more wild and outlandish look (which felt very Diane). The coat concept also ties into Diane’s career as a fashion photographer – that she despised.
I also read that Diane carried a paper bag as a purse into many of her fashion shoots (most likely as a way of making a statement). That image stuck with me really strongly for some reason, so I put each “phase” of her career inside of a paper bag. I felt this also gave each part of her “world” a outer protection, or shell, which made sense to me considering her tendency to stay quiet and hide away often.
The inside of the first bag represents the first big phase of her career, as a fashion photographer. She was unhappy during this time because of the order and gloss of the world she was surrounded by, so I tried to emphasize those qualities inside the bag. The second bag illustrates the second phase of her career, in which she broke out of the fashion world, and started shooting what she loved (and what she gained fame for). I read that she often shot hundreds of rolls of film on each assignment, simply because she was so excited about what she was creating. She was in a way collecting people through her work. She also transitioned to shooting in square format, as a sort of trademark. I collected some of my own portraiture work and cut it into square format, and created a sort of vibrant gallery within the bag to create the feeling of excitement and surplus of creativity during this part of her life. The third bag is representative of the third phase of her life, when she lost her way and fell into a really heavy depression, and eventually committed suicide. The black pictures are representative of the fact that she stopped creating, and through that, her world became empty.
Here are some photos of my final piece:
From the outside:
Inside Bag 1:
Inside Bag 2:
Inside Bag 3:
