Diane Arbus Documents — Max Rosenberg, Editor. Published by David Zwirner Books.
Five hundred pages of facsimile documents from a half century of magazines, journals and newspapers. They track the making, unmaking and ongoing remaking of the public perception of Diane Arbus' photographs, and the photographer herself. This is a remarkable anthology and a really beautiful publication. Part media archeology, part scrapbook, the effect of reading it is like watching a movie version of The Invisible Man: you never see the person directly but if enough pieces of paper blow in their direction, they cling to the outline. It's wonderful that the book includes texts by some of the less convinced and the doubters, and not only Susan Sontag. Arbus seemed to be able squeeze the shutter at the moment of greatest ambiguity, when the mixed feelings were most acute. In turn, her photographs elicit similar equivocation in viewers. This book feels true to that. A treasure.
David Campany, writer and curator, London and New York.
www.davidcampany.com