Social Influence

The first time I laid eyes on a Diane Arbus photograph, I was in love. This seemingly plain, mousy woman from New York City stared back at me from her numerous self-portraits. They were raw and unedited, and I saw myself in them. She had picked up her commercial photographer husbands’ equipment and started taking pictures not unlike myself with an old boyfriends DSLR. Arbus’s work brought into light the lives of folks on the fringe. She documented the absurdity in the mundane life of suburbanites and the beauty of life on the edges of society and that influence has never left me.

***Three Female Impersonators, N.Y.C.,***
***a photograph by Diane Arbus on gelatin***

Diane Arbus, *Lady Bartender at Home*
***with a Souvenir Dog, New Orleans L.A.*1964, printed after 1971**

Arbus was a photographer but she was also a documentarian. A photojournalist, telling stories through her images of American life in all its varied forms. It wasn’t until after I entered film school that I would be made aware of Lauren Greenfield’s photojournalistic oeuvre. Another unassuming looking individual with an eye for the obscene but this time she was using film as a medium as well. She was taking it a step further and with great intent was criticizing capitalism both from early on in her career through photography and later on with her documentaries such as The Queen of Versailles (2012) and Generation Wealth (2018).

**Kailia Deliz, 5, receiving her cash award for winning**
**the Ventura County Summer Fun” Beauty Pageant, Oxnard, California, 2011.**

**High school seniors (from left) Lili, 17, Nicole, 18,**
**Lauren, 18, Luna, 18, and Sam, 17, put on their**
**makeup in front of a two-way mirror for the**
**author’s Beauty CULTure documentary, Los Angeles, 2011**

Through these two influences along with countless others I came to the realization that storytelling was not limited to pen and paper. I could make art that would have the audience seeing exactly what I saw. And furthermore, I was no longer tethered in regard to sharing with the audience my art. With the rise of the era of social media, telling our stories was now as simple as touching a screen while in range of a decent wi-fi connection. Not only can we share our art, our stories but we can share who we are as artists, as people by connecting with our viewers more intimately than ever. I am now being made aware of visual artists from all walks of life through platforms such as Instagram. I can follow their creative processes, production and their everyday lives as they navigate their worlds and make their art all from the comfort of my home. As the world changes around us this freedom that visual artists have to create and be seen is so important. We all turn to art especially in these uncertain times to comfort us, to wake us up. Just like my younger self staring at Diane Arbus’s self-portrait and seeing myself, we are all witnessing one another and bettering our understanding of the world around us via these modern social platforms.

Works Cited