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Lot Essay
Arbus began photographing the subject of female impersonators in 1958, one that continued for years. In October, 1964, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired seven Arbus prints, one a portrait of a female impersonator.
"The female impersonators are the real examples of playing a single role because each one forms only one kind of woman which has precious little to do with the kind of man they look like and you cant see one behind the other. It looks like a leap into a new doom." (Diane Arbus, Postcard to Marvin Israel, March 17, 1960, in Diane Arbus Revelations, Random House, 2003, p. 147)
"The female impersonators are the real examples of playing a single role because each one forms only one kind of woman which has precious little to do with the kind of man they look like and you cant see one behind the other. It looks like a leap into a new doom." (Diane Arbus, Postcard to Marvin Israel, March 17, 1960, in Diane Arbus Revelations, Random House, 2003, p. 147)