In the world colonized by Arbus, subjects are always revealing themselves. There
is no decisive moment. Arbus’s view that self-revelation is a continuous, evenly
distributed process is another way of maintaining the Whitmanesque imperative:
treat all moments as of equal consequence. Like Brassaï, Arbus wanted her
subjects to be as fully conscious as possible, aware of the act in which they
were participating. Instead of trying to coax her subjects into a natural or
typical position, they are encouraged to be awkward—that is, to pose. (Thereby,
the revelation of self gets identified with what is strange, odd, askew.)
Standing or sitting stiffly makes them seem like images of themselves.
