Puck, review by Julie Brener Davich
2025
In a world where digital images are ubiquitous and everyone has a camera, it’s no surprise that appreciation for film photography has waned, especially among younger generations. But Constellation, an exhibition of 454 photographs by Diane Arbus that opened yesterday at the Park Avenue Armory, reminds viewers that photography is a singular and tactile art form. Ironically, the curator, Matthieu Humery, accomplishes that in part by making the exhibition an immersive, Instagrammable experience.
Arbus, who died in 1971, is, of course, best known for her portraits of various subcultures—nudists, circus performers, strippers, transvestites, and socialites—capturing a cross-section of midcentury humanity. “She was an anthropologist with her camera,” said Sarah Krueger, head of photographs at Phillips, as we wandered through the Armory exhibition together. “Her goal wasn’t to sensationalize, but to understand—to capture and, in her own way, connect.” Others continue to view Arbus’s work as exploitative rather than empathetic, although that’s a minority opinion these days. (A 2022 Washington Post story was titled, “Diane Arbus was accused of exploiting ‘freaks.’ We misunderstood her art.”)