diane arbus: family albums

Back in New York that fall, the Forsts, the Arbuses, the Franks, and several other couples continued to see one another: in the Village, at screenings of underground movies, at Happenings - the rage of the late fifties. Between the couples...the unspoken competition was 'ferocious,' Barbara Forst says, 'The men in our group sensed the women were as talented as they were - in some cases sensed that the women were as talented as they were- in some cases maybe more so...they were threatened by that and by our productivity, and they demeaned us and made us feel insecure. We were like handmaidens to our men - mothering, accommodating, putting off and in some cases putting down our own work- sometimes even hiding or destroying it.' Whenever the women met for coffee, they would tell anecdotes about the men in their lives- their husbands, lovers, casual pick-ups, old boyfriends. None of the women was a feminist- certainly Diane wasn't; they never used that word. -Patricia Bosworth 'Diane Arbus'