Blaze Starr in her Living Room

It used to be that you had to go to the circus to gawk at the freaks but Diane Arbus brings absurdity right to your coffee table. Her iconic photograph, Blaze Starr in her Living Room depicts a former stripper dancing modestly in her living room with a small dog. The essence of 60s interior design is captured effortlessly in the background from the carpet to the furniture, making it a riveting artifact.

Arbus' strongest asset as a photographer is her ability to capture the most natural expression of her subjects. Blaze Starr's face is exactly how it would be while she performed and her dance is frozen in an alluring pose. Even the puppy's giddy imitation is caught perfectly. Arbus' subject is photographed so honestly that one has to wonder whether the photographer is exploiting her characters or celebrating them.

To speak technically, Arbus' black and white photographs are just the right balance of light and dark, full of contrast and light. No detail of this shot is faded into obscurity. Arbus treats even the smallest details of Blaze Starr's living room with care, showing that Arbus was a master of the medium format film. The angle this photo is shot at is extremely inviting, the carpet draws your eye right up the ample leg of the subject almost to the point that you want to add a cymbal crash when your eyes meet the face.

It's hard to choose just one photo from her anthology Revelations because each one is completely unique. All of the images in this book have her signature style and voice. It's a difficult thing for a photographer to give voice to their images without words but Arbus has a way of frankly presenting subjects that make you think and add the voice yourself. Perhaps if the details of Arbus' tragic suicide were not known, we wouldn't see the melancholy in her photographs. The playful spirit of Arbus is quite evident in Blaze Starr in Her Living Room showing that the artist only wanted to engage with the fascinating individuals she met in her life.