Headless man, N.Y.C., 1961

This striking image graces the back cover of issue number 16 of Picture Magazine, 1980, 'the first issue … devoted exclusively to the work of a single artist.' Containing seventeen photographs by Arbus, selected from work made between 1956 and 1968, the monographic issue was published without any accompanying text. The editors of the magazine go on to explain that 'The photographs must speak for themselves. Perhaps in doing so they will reveal some new facet of her work that will reflect additional light on the place she occupies in the history of photography.'
 
In her application for a Guggenheim Fellowship to photograph American Rites, Manners, and Customs, Arbus wrote that 'These are our symptoms and our monuments, I want simply to save them, for what is ceremonious and curious and commonplace will be legendary.'