Diane Arbus redefined the concerns and the range of the art she practiced. Her bold subject matter and photographic approach have established her preeminence in the world of the visual arts. Her gift for rendering strange those things we consider most familiar, and uncovering the familiar within the exotic, enlarges our understanding of ourselves. Diane Arbus Revelations affords the first opportunity to explore the origins, scope, and aspirations of what is a wholly original force in photography. Arbus’s frank treatment of her subjects and her faith in the intrinsic power of the medium have produced a body of work that is often shocking in its purity, in its steadfast celebration of things as they are. Presenting many of her lesser-known or previously unpublished photographs in the context of the iconic images reveals a subtle yet persistent view of the world. The book reproduces two hundred full-page duotones of Diane Arbus photographs spanning her entire career, many of them never before seen. It also includes an essay, “The Question of Belief,” by Sandra S. Phillips, senior curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and “In the Darkroom,” a discussion of Arbus’s printing techniques by Neil Selkirk, the only person authorized to print her photographs since her death. A 104-page Chronology by Elisabeth Sussman, guest curator of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art show, and Doon Arbus, the artist’s eldest daughter, illustrated by more than three hundred additional images and composed mainly of previously unpublished excerpts from the artist’s letters, notebooks, and other writings, amounts to a kind of autobiography. An Afterword by Doon Arbus precedes biographical entries on the photographer’s friends and colleagues by Jeff L. Rosenheim, associate curator of photographs at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. These texts help illuminate the meaning of Diane Arbus’s controversial and astonishing vision.

"Diane Arbus was no a theorist but an artist. Her concern was not to buttress philosophical positions but to make pictures. She loved photography for the miracles it performs each day by accident, and respected it for the precise intentional tool that it could be, given talent, intelligence, dedication and discipline. Her pictures are concerned with private rather than social realities, with psychological rather than visual coherence, with the prototypical and mythic rather than the topical and temporal. Her real subject is no less than the unique interior lives of those she photographed."--John Szarkowski, 1972, Director, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art "I have never seen pictured like them before, and I am sure I will never see their equal again. They are the product of something beyond the camera, the result of a long, complex and intensely human process. No one can go into the street tomorrow and take a Diane Arbus photograph. That would be merely adjusting a lens and pressing a button. What made her pictures great was everything that happened before she pressed the button."--Douglas Davis, Newsweek, 1984 "Diane Arbus is one of our legends, her monograph a pivotal classic that changed the direction of photography in America. She captures the complexity and the art in reality. The quality that defines her work and separates it from almost all other photography is her ability to empathize on a level far beyond language."--Nan Goldin, Bookforum, 1995

當電影《皮相獵人》（FUR）以虛構的腳本來對應謎樣的黛安阿巴斯， 真實人生常與希薇亞普拉斯、芙莉達卡蘿相提並論的黛安阿巴斯，再度成為人們的焦點。 Diane Arbus:我是攝影師，不是女性攝影師 黛安‧阿巴斯是史上最偉大的攝影家之一， 是影像敘事的顛覆者、開創者， 連電影大師史丹利‧庫柏力克也從她的作品獲取靈感。 如同芙莉達‧卡蘿和歐姬芙，她在藝術和私生活方面都極為精彩， 她的傳奇，就像女詩人希薇亞‧普拉斯與瑪麗蓮夢露一般，極富魅力。 黛安‧阿巴斯說：「照片就是關於祕密的祕密。照片告訴你越多，你知道的越少。」本書作者於此開始調查這個祕密——探索她的謎團，設法找出黛安眼光的種種源頭。 一九六五，紐約現代藝術博物館的攝影藏品聯展， 選入了三幅黛安阿巴斯的作品， 展覽期間，館員每早的例行公事就是將這三幅展品上的口水擦掉。 只因她的影像非常直接、原始，剝除所有的矯飾，這讓大眾很不習慣。 黛安阿巴斯拍攝公眾目光看不見的人和世界的私密經驗， 拍攝的對象包括侏儒、雙胞胎、天體營、扮裝癖者和畸人， 大幅改變人們對「可允許拍攝的事物」的看法。 她檢視世界，而非詮釋世界， 她也小心翼翼地探索社會邊緣者和社會中心人士的視覺歧義。 她說，她只害怕自己的內心世界，從不害怕外在的世界。 她不過是想要幫「臉或故事打動她的人」拍照而已， 在影像的巨大衝擊背後，黛安阿巴斯不過只是凝視真實世界的敘事者。 一九七一年，她結束了自己的生命，作品已經成為時代圖像誌的一部份， 然而，黛安阿巴斯本人仍是一個謎。 本書是黛安阿巴斯最權威的傳記，對她的一生做了極為詳盡的描繪， 帶領讀者理解這位傳奇攝影師的世界與攝影觀點。 非常迷人……一本令人信服的傳記……極有價值，對美國一九五○、六○年代的文化史有深入的見解，對阿巴斯的特殊地位也有深刻的理解。 ——《華盛頓郵報書世界》（Washington Post Book World）書評 縈繞不去，令人心煩意亂……包斯華帶領我們接近她的傳主——靠近到令人著急的地步。 ——《紐約時報》的克里斯多夫‧李曼赫普特（Christopher Lehmann-Haupt） 這本傳記包含了多位藝術界傳奇性人物的豐富史料……派翠西亞‧包斯華的刻畫引人入勝。 ——《紐約》雜誌的安德魯‧霍勒倫（Andrew Holleran）

这是一部引人入胜的著作，是对隐藏在这些有关我们时代强有力的照片背后一位女性充满悲悯的描述。她始终不渝地用照片率真地表现那些几乎得不到社会承认的人们，以及那些被认为是“正常”的人，把他们在公众中的假面具上的裂痕勾画出来，这些照片在他们创作的当时就引起了人们的争论，直到今天仍旧议论纷纷。

黛安•阿勃丝那些有关侏儒、变性人和畸形人的令人震惊的图像重新定义了正常与非正常，而且成为阿勃丝在1971年自杀那个年代的示意插图。在这本翔实客观的传记出版之前，阿勃丝本人一直是个谜。帕特丽希娅•博斯沃思缜密考察了摄影家隐藏在这些照片背后的生活：黛安娇生惯养的童年，与阿伦•阿勃丝炽热的恋爱，以及黛安照片中所摄取的关于整个60年代的极端黑暗、充分自由和极端悲剧性的变故。这部引人入胜的著作，是对隐藏在这些有关我们时代的强有力的照片背后的一位女性充满悲悯的描述。

这是一本美国著名女摄影家黛安·阿勃丝的传记，也是她的摄影作品和生活照片的合集。 本书叙述了她一生中的关键事件和生活中的奇特、隐秘的事情。