In 1969, Diane Arbus made the first of several trips to New Jersey to photograph the residents of various homes for the developmentally challenged; a project posthumously named Untitled. Over the previous decade, she had established her reputation for photographing individuals living on the margins of society, focusing her lens on those so often left outside of it. Arbus gravitated towards those who didn't fit in and those whose collective quirks led to communities and subcultures, be it strip clubs, nudist colonies or circuses (as seen in lot 31). With the same curiosity, she also documented the rituals and customs of more mainstream society, from beauty pageants and ballroom dance competitions to youth baseball and diaper derbies, recognizing that the peculiarities of some groups were somehow more culturally acceptable than the peculiarities of others.
With these experiences behind her, Arbus arrived at the institutions intent on engaging with and photographing yet another overlooked segment of society. While her letters and notes on this series anecdotally address the simplicity and hardships of their lives, they also reveal a tenderness that carries through to the resulting images. In a letter to her husband Allan about turning these images into a book, she wrote,
"I could do it in a year. . . it’s the first time I’ve encountered a subject where the multiplicity is the thing. I mean I am not just looking for the BEST picture of them. I want to do lots. . . And I ought to be able to write it because I really adore them."
Mainly captured outside on sprawling fields, as seen in the seven works from the series offered within this sale, the residents played, laughed and posed for Arbus; hidden behind masks for Halloween (as seen in lots 35-37 and 39) and smiling brightly in their best attire for Easter (lot 40). There is irony in this, that these images of unbridled joy in a community so challenged constituted Arbus' final project, but there is undeniable beauty in the timeless empathy of the work. Examined through the lens of contemporary discourse regarding the representation and voices of marginalized groups, Arbus’s Untitled series could not be more relevant. Over 50 years later, these photographs remain poignant examples of the power of looking beyond the boundaries that separate us, be they physical, emotional or intellectual.
