Diane Arbus 1923-1971

Gift of the photographer to Harold Hayes, circa 1969

By descent to Judy Kessler Hayes, 1989

Sotheby's New York, 5 October 1994, Sale 6599, Lot 59

Acquired by the present owner from the above

Other prints of this image:

'Five Photographs by Diane Arbus,' Artforum, May 1971, p. 69

Diane Arbus (Aperture, 1972, in conjunction with the exhibition originating at The Museum of Modern Art, New York), cover illustration

New Photography USA (Photographers Gallery, London, 1972, in conjunction with the exhibition), unpaginated

Diane Arbus: Revelations, (New York, 2003, in conjunction with the exhibition originating at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), pp. 182, 265, and 270-1

Sarah Greenough et al., On the Art of Fixing a Shadow: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Photography (National Gallery of Art, Washington, and The Art Institute of Chicago, 1989, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 359

Weston Naef, Photographers of Genius at the Getty (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004), pl. 115

This photograph is dedicated by Arbus to Harold T. P. Hayes, the architect of the New Journalism movement and legendary editor of Esquire who, with art director Robert Benton, assigned Arbus her first photographic essay.  Published under the title, 'The Vertical Journey: Six Movements of a Moment Within the Heart of the City,' her essay consisted of six unsentimental portraits of an assortment of New Yorkers, and its appearance in the July 1960 issue marked Arbus's debut as a commercial photographer.

This experience established a relationship between Arbus and Esquire, and she continued to collaborate with Hayes and Benton (and Benton's successors), eventually publishing 31 photographs in 18 different Esquire articles by the time of her death in 1971.  It is likely that she gave this photograph to Hayes between 1967 and 1969.   Their friendship, although tumultuous, was enduring, and it was due in considerable measure to Hayes's support and interest that Arbus was able to make a living as a photographer.

Hayes resigned from Esquire in 1973, and subsequently authored three books on Africa--The Last Place on Earth, Three Levels of Time, and The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey, the last developed from a November 1986 essay in Life and later the basis for the 1988 film Gorillas in the Mist.  He died in 1989, leaving the Arbus photograph to his widow, Judy Kessler Hayes.

The black borders on the Identical Twins offered here indicate that it was printed between 1967 and 1969.  In Diane Arbus: Revelations, Neil Selkirk gives a detailed account of Arbus's evolving printing technique, using this image as an example.  Originally, the 2 1/4-inch format negative carrier of Arbus's enlarger revealed a slightly cropped version of her negatives.  To show an entire exposure, Arbus turned to a 'filed-out' negative carrier which revealed the complete image, as well as a thin band of the partial black border on two, three, or four sides.  Arbus printed her photographs in this manner between 1967 and late 1969, at which time she changed negative carriers again, and began producing images with softer borders, with only an occasional hint of black edge.

Prints of Identical Twins signed by Arbus are extremely rare. Only 3 (including this print) of the 9 lifetime prints of this image to have been offered previously at auction have been signed by the artist.  An additional print has been titled and dated only.  All others have been signed by Doon Arbus, the photographer's daughter and administrator of her estate.