Diane Arbus (56 page)

I don’t know whether Diane ever developed the Hoffman contact sheets. Maybe they’re still lying somewhere in the vast Arbus archive. I do know that she must have seen all sorts of drama in Hoffman’s gaze. She never photographed anything or anybody that was easy, but what she did see took consummate awareness.

As she once said, “I really believe there are things which nobody would see unless I photographed them.”

Patricia Bosworth

September 2004

Russeks ca. 1897, when it was a fur shop at 14th Street and University Place, and in the 1930s
(right),
after it had moved to this elegant Stanford White building at 36th Street and Fifth Avenue, and become the grand Russeks Fifth Avenue.

Diane, age five, with her brother Howard Nemerov, age eight.

The fiftieth wedding anniversary of Diane’s grandparents Meyer and Fanny Nemerov
(seated, center row middle).
Diane is holding a picture of Howard, who was ill with typhoid. Diane’s father David is standing
(second from left),
her mother Gertrude is seated
(second from left).

Diane at fifteen. She had just fallen in love with Allan Arbus.

Diane and her parents posing for the
Journal American.
They had just returned from Europe.

The beautiful Gertrude Russek Nemerov.

Gertrude made this collage of the Nemerovs and the Russeks.
Clockwise:
Grandfather Frank Russek, Howard with his arm around Frank, Diane in a hat, Renée dancing with David, Grandmother Rose Russek, Frank again, David after becoming president of Russeks Fifth Avenue, Gertrude, and Howard in Royal Canadian Air Force uniform.

Howard during World War II. He was a pilot and flew fifty missions with the RAF and later fifty-seven bombing missions over the North Sea with the Eighth U.S. Army Airforce.

Roy and Renée Sparkia shortly after their marriage.

BECOMES ENGAGED

A. F. Arbus to Wed Miss Diane Nemerov

Mr. and Mrs. David Nemerov of 888 Park avenue have announced the engagement of their daughter, Miss Diane Nemerov, to Allan Franklin Arbus, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Arbus of 1225 Park avenue.

Miss Nemerov is a graduate of Fieldston School. Her father is executive vice-president of Russeks Fifth Avenue.

Mr. Arbus attended the College of the City of New York and is now in the advertising business.

Case histories of seven married couples who are collaborating on joint careers in the arts, the sciences and business.