Retro photography. I fell for her photography in college in the early 80s. Every picture tells a story, to be sure, but Arbus takes it to another dimension. This photo has inspired many—from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's Teach your Children Well to the creation of Bart Simpson. And it has hit me as well. Colin Wood is only seven in the photo, so he is a bit younger than the novel's main character that I have been laboring on for more than ten years. I have been working on the second draft of Your Pal Al. The first was not quite complete and needed a lot of fixes. I hope to be done soon.
Diane Arbus: Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962
“She catches me in a moment of exasperation. It's true, I was exasperated. My parents had divorced, and there was a general feeling of loneliness, a sense of being abandoned. I was just exploding. She saw that and it's like . . . commiseration. She captured the loneliness of everyone. It's all people who want to connect but don't know how to connect. And I think that's how she felt about herself. She felt damaged and she hoped that by wallowing in that feeling, through photography, she could transcend herself.” — Colin Wood
