arbus + the maryland sword swallower

Arbus had very mixed feelings about her commercial projects. In her diaries it is clear that she found the need to earn a living from her photography a strain, particularly when she was independent after her divorce from her husband, Allan. However, in the productive period of magazine publishing in the 1960s there were opportunities for Arbus to work on projects that aligned with her own personal interests.

Arbus considered this image, originally commissioned by Esquire, one of her most successful and even considered including it in her limited-edition portfolio, 'A Box of Ten Photographs'. Against the dark backdrop of the tent, the paleness of the ‘albino sword swallower’ stands out, and the strong geometry of her outstretched arms and the swords’ blades above her head together create a dramatic composition.

In the summer of 1970 Arbus had been sent on assignment by Esquire to photograph girl shows at a carnival in Hagerstown, Maryland. Not finding the subject matter the magazine was hoping for, Arbus nevertheless made the trip productive for herself, photographing a number of carnival people including the Albino sword swallower and the Tattooed Man.

Roaming the carnival grounds, Arbus undoubtedly found many of the carnival people endlessly fascinating. She had an attraction to people and subjects who lived in worlds vastly different from her own and obsessively captured them on film. In the case of the Tattooed Man, she has created an archetypal figure.

This man seems to be at the same time a fierce warrior, as evinced by his full body tattoos and hands on hips, and a soulful being as revealed by his piercing eyes. The effect is intensified by Arbus' use of powerful flash.

She has said of her photographs: "the more specific [they] are, the more general it'll be. You really have to face the thing. And there are certain evasions, certain nicenesses that I think you have to get out of" (Diane Arbus, Aperture, 1972, pg. 2).

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