Arbus - Child Fashion Shoot in Jamaica

bvy · Dec 29, 2015

From the Bosworth biography on Diane Arbus comes this: "OVER THE 1966 CHRISTMAS holidays Diane flew to Jamaica to shoot children's fashions for an entire special section of the Sunday New York Times." Further along is a reference to "Allan's elaborate instructions for color exposures." As an Arbus fan, I'd very much like to see these images. Web searches turn up nothing, and I wonder if they've ever been published outside of the New York Times. I further wonder if they can be found in microfilmed back copies of the Times. Thoughts?

eddie · Dec 29, 2015

Allan was her husband, Allan Arbus. He was an army photographer, but best known as an actor. He played Dr. Sidney Freedman on M*A*S*H. (A little related trivia).

Melanie Vanderwege · May 20, 2016

eddie said:
Allan was her husband, Allan Arbus. He was an army photographer, but best known as an actor. He played Dr. Sidney Freedman on M*A*S*H. (A little related trivia).

Melanie Vanderwege · May 20, 2016

Regarding the photo shoot in Jamaica, I was one of the child models in the shoot in December of 1966 The actual New York Times Sunday magazine was published in March of 1967. I believe the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has the original photographs, contact sheets, etc. I do have old copies of the magazine itself.

MattKing · May 20, 2016

Melanie Vanderwege said:
Regarding the photo shoot in Jamaica, I was one of the child models in the shoot in December of 1966 The actual New York Times Sunday magazine was published in March of 1967. I believe the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has the original photographs, contact sheets, etc. I do have old copies of the magazine itself.

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bvy · May 20, 2016

Melanie Vanderwege said:
Regarding the photo shoot in Jamaica, I was one of the child models in the shoot in December of 1966 The actual New York Times Sunday magazine was published in March of 1967. I believe the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has the original photographs, contact sheets, etc. I do have old copies of the magazine itself.

Well, that's really cool! Thanks for checking in. I'm still interested in seeing this work -- but can't advise about the legality of you or anyone posting it online. I doubt the Met has anything on permanent display. But the dates certainly help, especially if it's available on microfilm or otherwise archived.

Perhaps you can tell us what you remember about the shoot and working with Arbus? How old were you at the time, and how did they find you?

EnidCrow · Nov 10, 2022

You can see Diane Arbus's work shooting children for the NY Times in the NY Times Machine (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com). Diane's work is in the NY Times Magazine on March 12, 1967 (Patricia Peterson, Children in the Sun); March 16, 1969, (Patricia Peterson, Ready for Action), and March 15, 1970 (Patricia Peterson, Looking to Summer). Pat, who was the fashion editor for the NY Times for about 20 years, championed her work, and there's a nice story about it in the Bosworth biography.

Arbus - Child Fashion Shoot in Jamaica

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