By this time, Arbus was not only known for her black and white photos of children, artists, and famous figures, but she was also known for her images of erotic dancers, clowns, circus performers, and transvestities. She also started taking eerie pictures of twins, families, couples, the elderly, urban scenes, and nudist camps in their homes, on the street, in the workplace, and in the park. She became known as the “Freak” photographer as her artwork became more known to people around the world, but unfortunately, this led to her commercial career ending due to the publishers being wary about her photographing their models. Arbus had a strong eye for being able to capture the person's flaws that they tried to hide. With her techniques, she was able to capture delight in companionship, self-love, fatigue, aggression, and many other expressions. This was one of the images she felt best resembled her photographic achievement, and it really does. There is beauty in this image that she makes sure she points out within the highlights of his face, part of the chest, and hand placement. However, she shows the audience the hidden flaws of the man as well by capturing the bags forming under the eyes that indicates he is tired, the facial expression looks as if he is stressed out or over life which is also highlighted in how dark the eyes are as if there was no life inside them. The way he holds the cigarette gives femininity, especially with the nails on his fingertips, but he also has a little pop in his hand as a way to show he is not as masculine as his body is showing. The hair curlers also give this away, while the way they are not tight in his hair, just like his how shirt does not look as tight either, this shows that there is a lack of care for trying to put himself together. The techniques Arbus uses stands out in this image and shining the light on the flaws and insecurities to make the world pay attention to the ones who are struggling around us without feeling bad for them but to be ashamed of ourselves for making these problems isolated and negative instead of including and building up the opportunity to better things.

Estrin, James. "Diane Arbus: [Obituary (Obit); Biography]." New York Times, 11 Mar., 2018. ProQuest, https://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/ne...

Mac Austin, Hillary . “Diane Arbus | Jewish Women’s Archive.” Jwa.org, 2010, jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/arbus-diane.

Smee, Sebastian. "Diane Arbus was accused of exploiting 'freaks.' We misunderstood her art." The Washington Post, 02 Oct., 2022. ProQuest, https://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/ne....

“Diane Arbus.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Mar. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Arbus.