A Young Waitress at a Nudist Camp 1963

Diane Arbus took this photograph of a young waitress at a nudist camp using her trusted Rolleiflex camera. The world is constructed through images, but how do we know what’s real? Arbus’s photographs are so compelling because they are so direct. Look at the texture of the sand, the rough-hewn boards behind the young woman, the details of her face and hair. Her bare feet press into the earth and you notice her slightly awkward stance, as though she were caught off guard, vulnerable, but also defiant. It's all about the materiality of the image, its stark contrasts and rich grays, that bring us face to face with the real. The girl is wearing a pristine, almost comically virginal, apron, a uniform both out of place and exactly in place, in this nudist camp. Like a lot of Arbus’s work, you can see a nod to Weegee and Lisette Model, but her work is utterly distinctive for its sense of psychological confrontation. It makes you question everything you thought you knew.