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Headless woman, Palisades Park, N.J.

Diane Arbus American
1961
Not on view
This photograph belongs to an arresting series of photographs Arbus described as "Horror Show" to her friend and advocate Walker Evans. In a September 1962 letter to Evans, Arbus commented on her photographs of performers who worked between screenings in cheap Times Square theaters, or at Hubert's Museum, a flea circus located in the basement of a 42nd Street penny arcade: "These are nightmares to beguile us while we wait." The photograph serves as a subtle but sophisticated observation of how what in the flesh might seem to be an obvious fake is transformed into an ambiguous mystery when seen by the camera. Thus, Arbus suggests, the camera may be more an agent of illusion than a diviner of truth.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Headless woman, Palisades Park, N.J.
  • Artist: Diane Arbus (American, New York 1923–1971 New York)
  • Date: 1961
  • Medium: Gelatin silver print
  • Dimensions: Image: 8 5/8 in. × 6 in. (21.9 × 15.3 cm)
    Sheet: 14 × 11 in. (35.6 × 27.9 cm)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1998
  • Object Number: 1998.357
  • Rights and Reproduction: © The Estate of Diane Arbus
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

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Woman with bangs, N.Y.C., Diane Arbus American, Gelatin silver print
Woman with bangs, N.Y.C.
Diane Arbus
1961
Couple in their living room hugging, Diane Arbus American, Gelatin silver print
Couple in their living room hugging
Diane Arbus
1971
Blonde female impersonator framed in a mirror beneath a light bulb, N.Y.C., Diane Arbus American, Gelatin silver print
Blonde female impersonator framed in a mirror beneath a light bulb, N.Y.C.
Diane Arbus
1959
[Diane Arbus Typewritten Letter to Stewart Stern]
Diane Arbus
Stewart Stern
ca. August–September 1968
[Diane Arbus Self-Portrait in an Automated Photobooth]
Diane Arbus
ca. 1965

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