Analysis of Diane Arbu's Identical Twins - Essay Example

Analysis of Diane Arbus’ “Identical Twins” The identical twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967, was taken and organized by the United States’ photographer Diane Arbus. Arbus is recognized after her photographs including “the people on the finger of the society” and “the outsiders”. In most occasions, Diane Arbus shot her photographs primarily using the Rolleiflex medium format that contained twin lens reflex. These features of the lens provided her photographs with features that were distinct. For instance, most of her photographs, including the “identical twin,” have waist level viewfinder as well as the aspect of the square ratio. The application and perfect adoption of the techniques of applying the viewfinders facilitated Arbus to connect with her subject perfectly, and beyond the stands of normal eye level viewfinders were able to synchronize the intended photograph. The photograph, identical twins portray the images of two young girls namely Colleen and Cathleen Wade. These two girls are equally portrayed standing side by side juxtaposed to each other with the aim of reviling their underlying identity. Moreover, the girls are addressed in similar attires of matching corduroy dresses with white lase around their necks and about their wrists. Additionally, the photograph clearly indicates that both girls have white headbands about their heads trapping their dark hair. Notably, they are coherently staring at the camera with one of them posing with a slight slime about her face while the other showing a slight indication of sadness. The indicated nature of state of each girl’s face depicts a state of parallelism among these twins. Furthermore, the parallelism may be as well been defined, or portrayed by the haunting nature of the portrait. In summary, it may be certain to say or note that the photograph reveals the photographer’s vision. Some of the photograph scholars had once noted that Arbus was suffering from identity issues. According to Patricia Bosworth, a biographer, Arbus in her career had ever been involved with the question of identifying her identity by comparing herself with other. She once had wanted to determine who she was and who others were. Therefore, the photograph of the twin image is a clear expression that cruxes the vision Arbus ever had. Alternatively, one may argue that Arbus was representing the content of the photograph in the form of normality being freakishness, and freakishness being normality (Krauss 12). According to Arbus, this photograph, of identical twins, was photographed at their tender age of seven years old each. In addition, it is as well apparent to note that the photograph was taken in a Christmas party, the party that was organized for twins and triplets. Commenting on the photograph, the father of these girls once commented that they had never thought such worst likeness of twins ever existed since according to him, they have never seen such likeness among any identical twin he has ever seen. It is worth noting that the photograph of the twins has as well inspired other artworks. For example, Stanley Kubrick reflects the elements of this photograph in the film “The Shinning”. Two identical twin sisters, with identical pose, are featured in this film. Most of Arbus’ artistic ideas are also reflected in a piece of artwork known as “Gummo” by Harmony Korine. The artistic elements represented by Arbus in the “Identical twins” photograph are also featured in a television series episode named “The Old and The Restless”. About the contemporary photographic work, Arbus is considered as a charitable photographer, in the sense that her work unconventionally related to the subject matter of portraits she presented in her collection. Most of Arbus’ photographs, including “Identical twins,” portray people or society as living unusual lives, and the same notion was accepted by most societies. Therefore, her photographs depicted what could have been supposed to be the real person. This makes her work different from what current photographers make of their collections. Additionally, Arbus uniquely personalized some photographic styles and techniques that made her work more classical than other photographers’ pieces of art (Krauss 24). However, the works of Diane Arbus are open for any discussion. The controversial issues that arose from Arbus’ artistic work of style were pegged on the subjects that were discovered in her hometown New York City. This understanding shows that her work were more related to nature, and the reality that was within the Mother Nature. The understanding of the Mother Nature, and representing its contents through photographs, makes Arbus a talented photographer who communicates the nature to the audience. As a fact, such information is quite vital in understanding the nature. For instance, she uses the photograph of the “Identical Twins” to speak out her concerns on issues of nature, particularly her concerns on identity and appearance relationships. Nonetheless, most of Arbus’ photographs depict the relationship between photographs and the subject matter in relation to the self-conscious; therefore, meeting the central aim of the drama within the portrait (Krauss 17). In “Identical twins,” Arbus has made the photograph nearly invariably confrontational in the sense that the subjects of the photograph, twin sisters, are directly looking at the camera and the resulting portrait is exceptionally sharp (Krauss 29). Additionally, the portrait is lit with the fontal light or a direct flash light. The sense of brightness seems to depict that the photographer is less interested in the intensiveness of the visual composition. Arbus’ failure to recognize and include elements of art, which improve the visual composition of photographs in the “Identical Twins” photograph, reveal her psychological truth of what she thinks about identity and appearance. Therefore, it is worth noting that her photographs are intensively educative since they entirely contain hidden meaning to certain levels. In conclusion, it is worth noting that Diane Arbus has never had an insight in her work, which reveals the nature of each day’s life. In relation to this common belief, the presentation in her work marvelously and psychologically reveals a powerful work that depicted a strong and original vision of the author. Additionally, the photographer never made emphasis on her characters independently, therefore, revealing the uniqueness in each character with the aim of reflecting a sense of deep and abiding humanity in these characters, in her photographs. Works Cited Krauss R. "The Photographic Condition of Surrealism." The MIT Press (2009): 3-34. Printed. Read More