Diane ArbusSans Titre

Untitled, edited by Doon Arbus and Yolanta Cuomo, is the third volume of her photographs published since Diane Arbus committed suicide in 1971 at the age of 48. It could as easily have been called “The Unnamed” because the subjects are nameless, or “At an Unknown Place,” since the locale(s) are not identified. Probably most appropriately it could have been called “An Unfinished Work.” In any case, it is an essential collection. These 51 black-and-white pictures, almost all of women and girls, are part of a series Arbus was working on at her death. They were taken in at least two unidentified institutions for the mentally retarded. Only a few of these images appeared in the first Arbus monograph; the rest have been held unpublished by the Estate since 1971.