Four photographs depicting the son of Diane Arbus's close friend, Shirley Fingerhood.

The subject of these four photographs is the son of Diane Arbus's close friend, Shirley Fingerhood, a progressive lawyer who represented a range of clients across entertainment, the arts, and literature, including Arbus herself and three Pulitzer Prize winners. In 1978, Fingerhood was appointed as a judge, later serving on the Supreme Court of the State of New York from 1986 to 1994. She and Arbus had known each other since their school days. After earning her degree from Yale Law School, Fingerhood returned to New York, where she established a legal practice focused on literary and First Amendment cases. It was during this period that she reconnected with Arbus, and the two developed a close friendship. From the mid-1950s until Arbus's death, Fingerhood frequently advised her on legal matters, 'because my photographs are becoming more and more questionable...' (Revelations p.181).

These photographs were taken shortly before Arbus completed her separation from her husband, Allan. Fingerhood, herself divorced, was raising her son by herself and Arbus, with two children of her own, sought her advice. Around this time, Arbus was particularly interested in photographing children, 'not those who satisfy the spun-sugar fantasies of their elders, but the ones harboring secrets from which adults are excluded' (Lubow p.263).

4 gelatin silver photographs (355 x 277 mm, 14 x 11 in), light cockling and handling, creasing to corners, occasional short tear to margin, one with fixer marks.