Diane Arbus genuinely was a very major contributor to the both photojournalism and the art of photography; and we have indeed been waiting a very long time for the sort of publication that really gets under the skin of her work. It’s always a subject for concern when the family or estate of an artist under the microscope is so closely connected with the production of a book or exhibition: veils are often drawn across very relevant material that such people feel unable to release into the public domain. Doon Arbus however, perhaps a bit like her mother, seems unconcerned with pulling punches. When you peer beneath the skin of this book, it really does begin to deliver on the subject of the artist and the issues that drove her. On a personal note I would like to have seen many more contact sheet reproductions: those that do appear tell us much about her shooting strategies, and very many more unpublished photographs, of which there must be thousands. But I would not have wished to sacrifice much of the content of this book in order to fit them in. Looking now at this selection of her pictures, made in the region of forty years ago, it’s interesting to note the relevance they retain for contemporary issues. The young man shown here, waiting to March in a pro-war parade, was of course supporting a war long finished; but the sentiment and controversy of the shot seems far from out of place in 2003. Diane Arbus was a troubled, gifted, ground breaking, eventually tragic photographer whose work has very much stood the test of time. Revelations: Diane Arbus makes a real contribution to our understanding of her work and the influence it has had upon a number of photographers practising today.