A child crying, N.J. 1967

1965

Photographs Susan Sontag and her son

Arbus photographed Susan Sontag with her son — the Sontag who would later criticise her work in an essay of 1973.

1966

Hepatitis and deepening depression

Arbus had hepatitis in 1966 and again in 1968; afterwards the bouts of the depression she had suffered since childhood grew worse, and long courses of therapy did not help.

1967

The “New Documents” exhibition at MoMA

The curator John Szarkowski presented Arbus with Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand as “a new generation of documentary photographers” whose aim was “not to reform life but to know it”. Nearly 250,000 people saw the show; some called Arbus a detached voyeur, others praised her empathy, and someone spat on her “Young Man in Curlers” in the museum.

1968

A letter about her ups and downs

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.