Gillian Wearing ('Me as Arbus')
- Artist: Gillian Wearing
- Date: 2008
- Medium: gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: 61 1/8 in. x 52 1/4 in. (1553 mm x 1327 mm) overall frame size
- Portrays: Gillian Wearing
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
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About this artwork
Here you see a large gelatin‑silver print by Gillian Wearing, created in 2008. The image is almost six feet wide – a dramatic scale that makes the figure impossible to ignore.
Wearing has posed as photographer Diane Arbus, a mid‑century New York icon known for her stark black‑and‑white portraits of everyday life. In this work she holds a camera at chest level, and light falls from a window behind her. Her gaze meets yours directly, like a snapshot frozen in time.
She wears a simple dress and a small mask that frames the face – elements echoing Arbus’s own practice of foregrounding the subject over the backdrop.
In 2008 Wearing was already established as both artist and sitter; she has produced dozens of portraits of herself and others. This print was gifted to the National Portrait Gallery in honour of Dr Nicholas Cullinan’s tenure. Enjoy exploring the details: light, camera placement, mask, and the sense of being caught mid‑shot.
See it in person
Gillian Wearing ('Me as Arbus') is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
