Couple in bed, N.Y.C.

Diane Arbus

1966 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Among Arbus’s many rare talents was the ability to find herself invited into people’s bedrooms, generally a forbidden place to outsiders. She garnered such invitations throughout her fifteen-year career and photographed in their bedrooms performers at Hubert’s Museum, Fifth Avenue matrons, proponents of free love, and even celebrities such as James Brown and Mae West. Particularly during a period in 1966, Arbus photographed numerous individuals on their beds in various states of undress, some in the throes of more intimate moments than others.

Artist

Diane Arbus

Date

1966

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Twentieth-Century Photography Fund, 2020