Who is Van Gogh, known as the photography circle?

Diane Arbus (1923- 197 1), a famous American female photographer, is known as Van Gogh in photography. The groups whose works are "Acura" include transsexuals, dwarfs, nude lovers' camps and so on. The characters in the image, whether beautiful or ugly, are staring at the camera. Examination is the attitude taken by photographers and photographers. If you are not strong enough, sometimes you will even be scared by some glaring eyes.

The first photographer to be attacked as immoral may be Diane Ellis. As long as I glance at her photo, I can't erase an unspeakable unhappiness from my heart. Most of her subjects are so-called deformed people in normal society-giants, Confucianism, imbeciles, disabled people, transgender people ... and the normal people she photographed are also abnormal types-twins, triplets, nude camps. ...

No matter the normal person or abnormal person in her lens, there is an extremely abnormal tendency: the characters are ugly, the expression is disgusting, the clothes are extremely vulgar, and the space is full of corruption. These photos have nothing to do with beauty.

When Alice's three photos were first exhibited at the new york Museum of Modern Art (1965), the administrator of the photography department wiped off the spit on them every morning. At that time, almost all the audience could not accept such a performance. Think her work is dirty and extremely immoral.

These characters photographed by Alice may have been met by everyone in daily life, but they were the last ones to see. But she recorded their facial expressions and psychological conditions, as if waiting to meet you and talk about the tragic events caused by fate. What forced Alex to devote himself to his inner darkness? What kind of person is she? The book Into the Dark World, which was just published in America last year, finally solved the mystery for us. This book is a biography of Alice written by Patricia Boston. As soon as it was published, it was immediately commented by Time magazine (TIME 1984). * * *) and highly recommended. It is expected that it will become a promising best seller. "Deformed people have a legendary quality, just like the characters in fairy tales, blocking you and forcing you to answer a riddle." Alex said in a speech: "Most people are afraid to go through this experience without any trauma, and deformed people are born with trauma, and they have passed the test of life." Alaez regards deformed people as "aristocrats", which is her own answer to the mystery of life. Her photo is another puzzle for normal people, and most people don't have the courage to answer it.

Pure and evil

Alice grew up in a very rich American Jewish family, and her brother and sister were brought up by their respective nannies. She is a spoiled greenhouse flower. However, this meticulous protection gave her considerable pressure. She said: "I think one of the things I suffered when I was a child was that I never felt that I was in trouble. I am affirmed by an unreal feeling, and everything I can feel is unreal. " In this unreal pain, Alice was moved by the living tragedy the first time she saw the deformed man. When I was a teenager, I often looked for eccentric people on the subway and followed them to see how they lived. She is attracted by tragic characters because she thinks they are more real than her. At the age of eighteen, Albus got married. Her husband, Aaron Arbus, is a fashion photographer, and both of them work in HARPER'S BAZAAR, an authoritative fashion magazine. They are a successful fashion photography team in the golden age of commercial photography. At the age of thirty-five, Albus left fashion photography and devoted himself to his own work. She took the course of female photographer Lisa Rong De (Lhette Model 1906-) at the Art College of the new school.

Rong De has been shooting unusual people-extremely fat and thin people, extremely rich and extremely poor people. She encouraged Albus to shoot something that attracted her, but it was considered extremely evil and threatening. "Evil or not," Maud told her, "if you don't photograph what you have to photograph, you will never photograph it." Albus began to live in the Hubert Monster Museum at 42nd Street and Broadway in new york. She tracks giants and dwarfs in the middle of the night and haunts vulgar society. In and out of dangerous huts, brothels, transsexual hotels and slave houses.

Bos described it this way: "She doesn't seem to be afraid at all, but Alice is always afraid of everything she does-she lives in fear and overcomes the days of fear every day. The feeling of terror became a therapeutic agent for her, with the pressure of growing up in the greenhouse. " Alex, who was born too well and spoiled too much, seems to want to break some taboos to break the family inheritance. She fell into the dark world step by step, as if only by associating with evil could she wash away the pain caused by purity.

Normal and abnormal

Albus is a very sensitive person, and her way of observing people has its own unique side: "We met a person on the road and basically only noticed his defects. Strangely, we have this tendency, but because we are dissatisfied with our own nature, we have created another set-camouflage. We disguise ourselves, send a signal to the world, and let others know ourselves in some way. But there is a gap between what you want others to know and what you can't help being disturbed by others. This is what I have always said about the gap between intention and effect. " In other words, in Albus' view, "people often pretend to be normal to let others know, while others often see your abnormal side." This is what Alex wants to show, just like Boshan said: "She photographed the abnormality in the normal state, and the normality in the abnormality."

Alice's photography skills are extremely simple. She has always used the square composition of Mahayana six cameras. Most people take close-ups of their heads, and the people who are photographed pose for photos. Jutten Marquez, an art critic in The New York Times, commented on this technique: "Nothing in Albus' photos is improvised, and nothing is' captured'. Interested in being photographed, be patient with the camera. They are fully aware of the process of taking pictures and work together. This sense of participation constitutes the dialogue between the photographer and the object, and expresses a kind of dignity according to the photos. And I think: dignity is the source of strength for these freaks! "

Familiar and incredible

Albus also has an unusual relationship with her theme. She associates with deformed people almost in envy and jealousy, so all the characters in the photos have heroic interpretations. In order to shoot a Jewish giant, she has been chasing it for ten years, and it is impossible without enthusiasm. She has also participated in transgender parties, dated and dined with "him" or "her", and was naked herself in order to shoot nude camps. She feels that she has seen higher moral standards in this special circle. She is not interested in what she is familiar with, but has a soft spot for what she has never seen and is incredible. Her words are printed on the title page of her only photo album: "Nothing is ever familiar to ordinary people, what I recognize is something I have never seen before."

This photo album was edited by Albus' daughter and friends before her death and published by the famous photography publishing company APERTURE (1972). The 80 black and white photos collected in the photo album are the strangest images in the history of photography. Although these photos are regarded as "great works", they are still difficult to be accepted by the general public.

Abs used a camera to express the most vulnerable part of human thought. It seems to tell the world that evil is in everyone's heart. Everyone has abnormal genetic factors. Among the things you are most familiar with, there are some unexpected events brewing. The intention of her whole photography is to show: "The familiar things are incredible. I can't believe the familiar face of this object. " There is evil in good and good in evil, which is taboo under secular moral norms. And Alex has been pursuing the forbidden door all his life.

Photography is an intention for Albus, not a record: "For me, the theme of a photo is always more important and complicated than the photo itself. I do have feelings for photos, but I don't think it's great. What I care about is what this photo is about. " Albus' photographic behavior is almost a philosophical thinking, not a visual expression. The reason why she will stay in history forever is precisely because: through the objects she shoots, people can think about fate and tragedy, themselves and others, and the boundaries between normal and abnormal.

An unsolvable riddle

After entering the forbidden gate, Albus was more and more influenced by incredible things, but he could not really enter the "aristocratic world" she respected. "What I want to describe is that you can't get out of your skin and enter other people's bodies; The tragedy of others can never be yours. " She dyed herself black again and again, but she will never be black. This kind of anguish tormented her again and again, making her miserable. She suffered from severe periodic depression and chronic hepatitis, and finally committed suicide to seek relief. Her death was as shocking as her photography. She lay in the bathtub and cut it off with a blade, so that the soil preparation water was dyed red with blood and she was dyed red until she swallowed her last breath. She can't solve the mystery of life. Or is the answer "death"? After living in the dark world for forty-eight years, Albus fulfilled his wish in the last ten years (1962- 197 1). From the photos taken in the past ten years, we can clearly see that she is dying step by step, and the later photos are more bizarre and incredible. Before his death, he took a group of 7 photos in the name of Untitled, which was a fancy dress party for mentally retarded children. She once described her shooting experience like this: "A 60-year-old man with only six years of intelligence said to me,' I used to be depressed. "How could I be like this?" After we finished dancing, his eyes suddenly lit up and he said, "Ha! I'm not depressed at all. Albus' third work Untitled is an imbecile wearing a devil mask. This "noble" seems to be calling Albus: "Let's not be depressed, come on! Dance with me in hell. "