Diane Arbus — A box of ten photographs

Published in asso­ci­a­tion with the Smith­son­ian Amer­i­can Art Museum, this richly illus­trated volume explores Diane Arbus’s ground­break­ing final project: A Box of Ten Photographs. Orig­i­nally produced in an intended edition of fifty sets, only four were completed and sold by Arbus before her untimely death in 1971. These rare port­fo­lios — acquired by the likes of Richard Avedon, Jasper Johns, and Bea Feitler — repre­sent the photographer’s only self-curated body of work, each print paired with a hand-written vellum caption sheet.

The book traces the extra­or­di­nary history of this legendary edition, centered on the only complete box held in a public collec­tion — now part of the Smithsonian’s hold­ings — and the subject of a 2018 exhi­bi­tion. Edited and intro­duced by curator John P. Jacob, this publi­ca­tion offers never-before-seen archival mate­r­ial and an in-depth narra­tive of Arbus’s final creative endeavor, which helped to solid­ify photography’s place in the world of fine art.

A beau­ti­fully produced and compelling tribute to one of the most influ­en­tial photog­ra­phers of the 20th century, this first edition repli­cates the inti­mate and provoca­tive spirit of the orig­i­nal object. A must-have for collec­tors of Arbus, postwar photog­ra­phy, and Amer­i­can visual culture.