Diane Arbus

.diane arbus. , a monograph published by Aperture in 1972 has been one of the first albums of photographic images in my collection. When I first visited New York in 1976, I bought this book at the Museum Of Modern Art, together with a couple of others (Jerry N. Uelsmann, Ernst Haas).

At the time, my knowledge of America has been based entirely on bits and pieces of information I've been able to put together from American books and Polish alternative-press publications - mainly reprints from American newspapers and magazines. Those were idealistic images - both too complex and too simplistic to be useful in creating a true understanding of a country as complicated as the USA.

The minute I looked through Diane Arbus' book, I knew I got a long way to go in order to understand America. And I knew right then that this book may be a better place to look to for a meaningful information and feeling than reading reprints from 'Wall Street Journal', 'Forbes' or even 'Newsweek'.

Needless to say, this book made a very deep impression on me - visually, emotionally and intellectually. After all these years, I think of Diane Arbus as one of the most important artists in 20th century's photography.