In a letter to her friend Carlotta Marshall Arbus confessed that she would be filled with energy and joy and then, through tiredness or disappointment, suddenly lose it, frightened by the very things she had been eager for. Her “depressive episodes”, similar to her mother’s, may have been worsened by symptoms of hepatitis.
1968
Sharecroppers in South Carolina for Esquire
On assignment for Esquire Arbus made documentary photographs of poor sharecroppers in rural South Carolina — one of the commissions that largely supported her through the 1960s.
1969
Divorce from Allan
The couple divorced when Allan moved to California to pursue acting (by other accounts, when he decided to remarry). Before leaving he set up a darkroom for Diane, and afterwards they kept up a long correspondence.
1970
An award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers
Arbus received an award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers; that same year her health was rapidly deteriorating.
May 1971
Artforum publishes pictures from “A box of ten photographs”
Six photographs, one on the cover, from her portfolio “A box of ten photographs” (pictures of 1963–1970 in a clear Plexiglas box designed by Marvin Israel) made Arbus the first photographer featured in Artforum; its editor Philip Leider admitted that after her one could no longer deny photography’s status as art. The portfolio was meant as an edition of 50, but she completed only eight boxes and sold four — two to Richard Avedon, one each to Jasper Johns and Bea Feitler.
