Skip to main content

Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

American, 1923-1971

Diane Arbus might’ve been born into New York City’s high society, which was protected from the horrors of the Great Depression, but she preferred to live life on the fringe of it. There she met the subjects of her now-iconic portrait photography — “eccentrics” such as circus performers, people with developmental disabilities and addicts.

Arbus didn’t start out photographing these people, however. She and her husband, Allan, whom she wed when she was just 18, developed a shared interest in photography after he served as a photographer during World War II. When he returned, the couple shot fashion spreads for Arbus’s family’s department store, eventually having their work published in glossy magazines.

Having studied under photographers Berenice Abbott, Alexey Brodovitch and Lisette Model, Arbus then pursued her interest in documentary work in the 1950s, taking to the streets of New York to photograph strangers. By 1962, she was shooting from the waist with a medium-format camera. She didn’t want the camera to block her connection to her subjects, which were now the people marginalized by society rather than fashion models. “For me the subject of the picture is always more important than the picture. And more complicated,” Arbus explained.

Before her death by suicide in 1971, when she was just 48 years old, Arbus had achieved acclaim for her works such as Child With Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. (1962) and Identical Twins, Roselle, N.J. (1967). She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1963 and 1966 and had her work shown in the monumental 1967 group exhibition “New Documents” at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Posthumously, her fame only broadened. MoMA put on a solo show for the artist in 1972, and, in the same year, Aperture published her first monograph.

Today, Arbus’s photographs are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, among many other institutions.

Find Diane Arbus photography on 1stDibs.

to
1
4
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
5
4
1
4
5
5
4
3
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
5
1
1
1
1
9
1,990
1,356
212
211
3
5
Artist: Diane Arbus
Girl in a Shiny Dress, NYC
By Diane Arbus
Located in Saint Louis, MO
Diane Arbus Girl in a Shiny Dress, NYC, 1967 Gelatin silver print Image Dimensions: 14.5 x 14.5 inches (36.8 x 36.8 cm) Paper Dimensions: 20 x 16 inches ...
Category

1960s Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Camp Lakecrest campers as trees, Dutchess County, NY
By Diane Arbus
Located in New York, NY
Camp Lakecrest campers as trees, Dutchess County, NY 1968 Estate stamped and signed by Doon Arbus for the Estate of Diane Arbus, verso Gelatin silver...
Category

1960s Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Puerto Rican woman with a beauty mark
By Diane Arbus
Located in New York, NY
Estate stamped and signed by Doon Arbus for the Estate of Diane Arbus, verso Gelatin silver print (Edition of 75) 20 x 16 inches, sheet 14.875 x 14.375 inches, image Contact galle...
Category

1960s Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

A young man and his girlfriend with hot dogs in the park, N.Y.C. 1971
By Diane Arbus
Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 75) Estate stamped and signed by Doon Arbus for the Estate of Diane Arbus, verso Also titled, dated, and numbered in black ink, verso 20 x 16 inche...
Category

1970s Other Art Style Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

New York City, Widow in Her Bedroom, 55th St, Iconic Photography by Diane Arbus
By Diane Arbus
Located in New york, NY
A Widow in Her Bedroom, 55th St, NYC, 1963 by Diane Arbus is a vintage gelatin silver print, printed by the photographer. The subject, a widow, is dressed in a shiny dress...
Category

1960s Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Related Items
Jaybirds
By Adam Jahiel
Located in Sante Fe, NM
For years, Jahiel has been photographing the cowboys of the Great Basin–perhaps one of the most inhospitable regions of the already rugged West. These people represent one of the l...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Jaybirds
$1,200
H 14 in W 14 in
Tirana, Albania, 2012
By Pentti Sammallahti
Located in Sante Fe, NM
Pentti Sammallahti is a benchmark figure in contemporary Finnish photography. His works depict nature eroded and broken down by civilization, but he does not put man and the environm...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Untitled Portrait
By Seydou Keïta
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes framing with UV Plexi ($900 value), free shipping, and a 14-day return policy. Seydou Keïta Untitled Portrait, 1952 - 1955 (02158) 23...
Category

1950s Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Le Petit Parisien, Paris, France, Iconic Contemporary French Photography
By Willy Ronis
Located in New york, NY
A much sought after photograph Le Petit Parisien, 1952 by French photographer Willy Ronis is a black and white image, a gelatin silver print, measuring 30 x 23,5 cm 12 x 9in. The w...
Category

1950s Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin, Photographic Film, Photographic Paper

Chanel Vertical, 1990
By Todd Burris
Located in Hudson, NY
Listing is for UNFRAMED print. Edition 1 of 15. CURRENT EXHIBITION - runs through September 4th, 2016. Any framed photographs purchased during the show will be available after September 4th. If the exhibition piece is sold or the customer orders a different print size, the photograph is produced upon purchase. Please allow two weeks for production. Shipping time depends on method of shipping. Price is subject to availability. The Robin Rice Gallery reserves the right to adjust this price depending on the current edition of the photograph. ABOUT: Since the early ‘90s, gallerist Robin Rice and designer Antony Todd...
Category

1990s Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Silver Gelatin

Hugh Hefner in His Bedroom Office, Chicago 1961, Black and White Photography
By Art Shay
Located in Chicago, IL
"Nelson Algren's Chicago: Photographs by Art Shay", page 34. Hugh Hefner liked Algren and vice versa. After Hefner purchased several of his short stori...
Category

1960s Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Ted Higby at Skyline Rodeo, 1928
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes framing with UV plexiglas, free shipping and a 14 day return policy. Ted Higby at Skyline Rodeo, 1928 15 x 12 inch gelatin silver print Image Size: 14 x 8.5 inches Frame size: 22.5 x 17.5 x 2 inches Edition of 15 Lora Webb Nichols was born in 1883 and grew up in the small mining town of Encampment, Wyoming. At the age of 16 Lora received her first camera and from that moment and for the next few decades she produced work that is both stunning in its singular voice and revealing in the world it opens up for us. At first Nichols photographed her family, friends, and the landscape around Encampment, but when the town experienced a copper mining boom Nichols expanded her scope to become a photographer for hire shooting portraits and industrial photographs. When the boom collapsed, Nichols took the risk of opening her own business in Encampment - The Rocky Mountain Studio - which opened in 1925. The studio ran for ten years, accumulating 24,000 negatives that illustrate the lives and environment of the people living in and around the town while creating a distinctive and surprising body of work. If one was to attempt an analogy – Nichols’ pictures fit somewhere between Lartigue and Lange - joyful and generous while objectively intimate. In particular what seems to distinguish Nichols’ work is the way she sees the world from a female perspective. As Vince Aletti...
Category

1920s Other Art Style Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp playing chess during Duchamp's Pasadena Art Museum
By Julian Wasser
Located in New York, NY
Listing is for an unframed print and includes free shipping to the continental US and 14-day return policy. Julian Wasser Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp pl...
Category

1960s Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Female Nude in Yoga Pose, Black and White Photograph of Woman, Kate #10
By Leonard Freed
Located in New york, NY
Kate #10, 2002 by Leonard Freed is an 8" x 10" hand printed. Signed by the photographer black and white photograph, stamped "vintage" by the Freed estate. Model and yogini Kate remai...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin, Photographic Film, Photographic Paper

Elaine Irwin Mellencamp, Unique with Gold Paint, For Pirelli 1998, Custom framed
By Bruce Weber
Located in London, GB
The Pirelli Calendar, known and trade-marked as "The Cal", is an annual trade calendar which has been published by the UK subsidiary of the Italian tyre manufacturing company Pirelli...
Category

1990s Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Gold

Spectral (Kings Road) - unique solarized gelatin silver artist print
By Mona Kuhn
Located in San Francisco, CA
In Kings Road (2022) Mona Kuhn lyrically reconsiders the realms of time and space within the midcentury architectural elements of the iconic Schindler House in Los Angeles. Built by Austrian architect Rudolph M. Schindler in 1922, the house was both a social and design experiment and an avant-garde hub for intellectuals and artists in the 1920s and ’30s. The body of works incorporates chromogenic color prints, reflecting vignettes and materials of the building's emotional architecture, juxtaposition with unique solarized gelatin silver prints capturing traces of an ethereal human presence. Spectral (2022) Kings Road: A Rudolph Schindler House 30" x 40" / 76cm x 102cm /edition of 12 15" x 20" / 38cm x 56cm / edition of 12 limited edition solarization photograph printed by the artist + accompanied by signed artist certificate: artist signature label (8x10") signed/editioned/dated/titled by the artist + stamped for authenticity label is placed centered on verso of the mounted print __________________ About the artist Acclaimed for her contemporary depictions, Kuhn is considered a leading artist in the world of figurative discourse. Throughout a career spanning more than twenty years, the underlying theme of her work is her reflection on humanity’s longing for spiritual connection and solidarity. As she solidified her photographic style, Kuhn created a notable approach to the nude by developing friendships with her subjects, and employing a range of playful visual strategies that use natural light and minimalist settings to evoke a sublime sense of comfort between the human figure and its environment. Her work is natural, restful, and a reinterpretation of the nude in the canon of contemporary art. For the past two decades, the Los-Angeles based artist's works have been shown steadily, revealing an astonishing consistency in technique, of subject and of purpose. In 2001, Kuhn’s photographs were first seen by an influential audience during the exhibition at Charles Cowles Gallery in Chelsea, New York. Kuhn’s distinct aesthetic has propelled her as one of the most collectible contemporary art photographers—her work is in private and public collections worldwide and she is represented by galleries across the United States, Europe and Asia. Kuhn was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1969, of German descent. In 1989, Kuhn moved to the US and earned her BA from The Ohio State University, before furthering her studies at the San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently an independent scholar at The Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Occasionally, Mona teaches at UCLA and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Kuhn’s first monograph, Photographs, was debuted by Steidl in 2004; followed by Evidence (2007), Native (2010), Bordeaux Series (2011), Private (2014), and She Disappeared into Complete Silence (2018/19). In addition, Stanley/Barker Editions published Kuhn's Bushes & Succulents in 2018. In 2021, Thames & Hudson published a career retrospective titled Works. Kuhn's most recent publication Kings Road (2022) with Steidl accompanies a multi-dimensional museum traveling exhibition shown in Europe and the US. Mona Kuhn’s work is in private and public collections worldwide, including The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Hammer Museum, Perez Art Museum Miami, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Kiyosato Museum in Japan. Kuhn's work has been exhibited at The Louvre Museum and Le Bal in Paris; The Whitechapel Gallery and Royal Academy of Arts in London; Musée de l’Elysée in Switzerland; Leopold Museum in Vienna Austria, The Polygon Gallery in Vancouver Canada, Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan and Australian Centre for Photography. Mona Kuhn lives and works in Los Angeles. __________________ Solo Exhibitions 2025 Mona Kuhn: Y Tu Desnudo será Un Gran Poema, Museum of Contemporary Art, Malaga, Spain Mona Kuhn: Kings Road, Lianzhou Museum of Photography, China 2024 Mona Kuhn: The Schindler House, A Love Affair, Galerie XII...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Photographic Film, Photographic Paper, Silver Gelatin

Daniel Craig Contact Sheet (Limited Edition of 25) - Celebrity Photography
Located in New York, NY
This is a 2002 contact sheet (a positive print of all the negative images from a roll of 35mm film or medium format film) of youthful-looking Daniel Craig...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Previously Available Items
Muscle man contestant, N.Y.C.
By Diane Arbus
Located in New York, NY
Muscle man contestant, N.Y.C. 1968/printed later Estate stamped and signed by Doon Arbus for the Estate of Diane Arbus, verso Gelatin silver print (Editio...
Category

1960s Contemporary Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Woman with Eyeliner, NYC
By Diane Arbus
Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 75) Estate stamp, verso Also signed in ink by Doon Arbus, executor of the Estate of Diane Arbus, verso 20 x 16 inches, sheet size This artwork is ...
Category

1960s Modern Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Transvestite at Her Birthday Party
By Diane Arbus
Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 75) Estate stamp in black ink, verso Also signed in ink by Doon Arbus, executor of the Estate of Diane Arbus, verso 20 x 16 inches, sheet size 14.5...
Category

1970s Modern Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Young couple on a bench in Washington Square Park, NYC
By Diane Arbus
Located in New York, NY
Gelatin silver print (Edition of 75) Estate stamp in black ink, verso Also signed in ink by Doon Arbus, executor of the Estate of Diane Arbus, verso 20 x 16 inches, sheet size 14.5...
Category

1960s Modern Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Two Girls in Matching Bathing Suits, NYC
By Diane Arbus
Located in New York, NY
Two Girls in Matching Bathing Suits, 1965 gelatin silver print stamped, signed, titled by Doon Arbus, Estate on verso 16 x 20 inches edition 75
Category

1960s American Realist Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Blond Girl with Shiney Lipstick
By Diane Arbus
Located in New York, NY
Diane Arbus's photographs, which have permeated the popular imagination since the time of her death, rank among the most compelling images of the last half century. Arbus committed suicide in 1971. Two Friends at Home, is considered one of her most iconic works. Her "contemporary anthropology" – portraits of couples...
Category

1960s Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Woman with eyeliner, N.Y.C.
By Diane Arbus
Located in New York, NY
Diane Arbus's photographs, which have permeated the popular imagination since the time of her death, rank among the most compelling images of the last half century. Arbus committed suicide in 1971. Two Friends at Home, is considered one of her most iconic works. Her "contemporary anthropology" – portraits of couples...
Category

1960s Diane Arbus Portrait Photography

Diane Arbus portrait photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Diane Arbus portrait photography available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Diane Arbus in silver gelatin print, film, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Diane Arbus portrait photography, so small editions measuring 11 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Richard E. Aaron, Bruce Weber, and Danny Clinch. Diane Arbus portrait photography prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $55,000 and tops out at $55,000, while the average work can sell for $55,000.

Recently Viewed

View All