Child Crying 1967

Diane Arbus created this stark, untitled image of a crying child using black and white film photography, a medium that gained prominence as a tool for documentary and artistic expression throughout the 20th century. Here, Arbus seems to turn the conventions of portraiture inside out. The emotional display challenges the usual presentation of childhood innocence, in an era when children were often sentimentalized in popular culture. It was made in the United States during the post-war period, a time marked by both unprecedented prosperity and underlying social anxieties. Arbus’s work often engaged with subjects on the margins of society, offering a counter-narrative to the idealized images promoted by mainstream media and advertising. The role of the historian, here, is to look beyond the surface, researching the cultural contexts and photographic practices of the time. By exploring archives, periodicals, and the artist's own writings, we can begin to understand Arbus's critical perspective.