1962-1971

Diane Arbus in the park

A legendary lens prowls New York's green spaces

"Teenage boy on a bench in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962"

Image: © The Estate of Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus received her first camera as a honeymoon gift from her husband, with whom she ran a successful fashion photography business for almost a decade.

In 1956, restless and unfulfilled, she fled the confines of the commercial studio and took to the streets, first with a 35mm Nikon and later with a medium format twin-lens reflex camera.

Some of the richest grounds for photographic encounters were the city’s public parks, where Arbus prowled the lanes and lawns with her camera and flash, hunting for the strange, melancholy, and striking subjects that would come to define her style.

The images Arbus made in Central Park and Washington Square are the subject of a new show, Diane Arbus: In the Park, on view at the Lévy Gorvy gallery in New York through June 24.

The exhibit features photos from throughout Arbus’ brief but storied 15-year career, including some of her most famous images, such as Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962, as well as many others that have never before been displayed.

"Three boys at a baseball game in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962"

Image: © The Estate of Diane Arbus

"Two ladies walking in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1963"

Image: © The Estate of Diane Arbus

I remember one summer I worked a lot in Washington Square Park…. There were young hippie junkies down one row. There were lesbians down another, really tough amazingly hard-core lesbians. And in the middle were winos. They were like the first echelon and the girls who came from the Bronx to become hippies would have to sleep with the winos to get to sit on the other part with the junkie hippies. It was really remarkable.

Diane Arbus