Untitled is the third volume of Diane Arbus's work and the only one
devoted exclusively to a single project. The photographs were taken at
residences for the mentally retarded between 1969 and 1971, in the last
years of Arbus's life. Although she considered doing a book on the
subject, the vast majority of these pictures remained unpublished prior
to this volume. These photographs achieve a lyricism, an emotional
purity that sets them apart from all her other accomplishments. "Finally
what I've been searching for," she wrote at the time. The product of her
consistently unflinching regard for reality as she found it, the images
in this book have less in common with the documentary than with the
mythic. Untitled may well be Arbus's most transcendent, most romantic
vision. It is a celebration of the singularity and connectedness of each
and every one of us. For Diane Arbus, this is what making pictures was
all about.