Nice post? I put up someone else’s picture and made an indecipherable comment about Steve Buscemi. I’d hardly call it my greatest work, or indeed any work at all.

Arbus, by her own admission, enjoyed taking pictures of “freaks.” When her subject matter wasn’t actually the mentally or physically handicapped, she was making implicit (and cruel) contextual comparisons to such—as in the picture of the boy at the Pro-war rally, or the family in their backyard. It doesn’t matter what kind of fancy-pants academic language you dress it up in, a freak show is still a freak show, and it’s still just as demeaning.

I reject the criticism implicit in Arbus’ work. The picture below is titled “Patriot,” and I think it makes pretty clear what Arbus thought of those who feel sentiment for the United States. On the Patriot’s lapel is a button or sticker that says “I’m Proud.” I’m proud to be closer, to feel more affinity, for that guy, than for some chick who took pictures of retarded people, got famous for it, and decided to slit her fucking wrists.

Mixed in with a number of disturbing and—I think the word might be justified—exploitative photographs on Diane Arbus’ site, I found this quite frankly awesome one:

I love this guy. He’s what Steve Buscemi would look like, if Steve Buscemi looked like Steve Buscemi.

Some people know it as Proportion of Man, but I know Da Vinci was simply sketching plans for the world’s first snowglobe.