Review Businessweek

The 2006 movie “Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus” may not be a masterpiece. Yet the mere fact that a biopic about a photographer, a generation after her suicide, found a producer is remarkable. In the U.S., Arbus (1923-71) is a star whose prints fetch astronomical prices. In France, she had been virtually ignored. The retrospective at the Jeu de Paume is the first major exhibition of her work in Paris. Regrettably, the organizers follow neither a chronological nor a thematic order. They present the 200 or so photographs in a muddle, leaving it to the visitor to decipher the sense. To justify their unhelpful attitude, they quote the artist: “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.”