The '60s also probably wouldn't have been the best time for Ms. Arbus to find her equilibrium.

WSJ: 'Nobody Else Sees the Way I Do'

It doesn't sound as if Ms. Arbus spent much time studying calculus or cramming for the SATs.

WSJ: 'Nobody Else Sees the Way I Do'

"People think they're paintings, " said Ms. Arbus, who travels much of the year, teaching from Trondheim in Norway to Provincetown.

WSJ: 'Nobody Else Sees the Way I Do'

Arbus started out in fashion photography in partnership with her husband, Allan Arbus, but by the mid-1950s she had rejected its artifice.

ECONOMIST: The torment behind the camera

It was around that time that Ms. Arbus picked up a camera.

WSJ: 'Nobody Else Sees the Way I Do'

Fascinated by their outsider lives, Arbus beguiled her sitters with infectious empathy.

ECONOMIST: The torment behind the camera

The Diane Arbus Estate, protected by her daughter Doon, makes it hard to reproduce her photographs (the book like this article has none).

ECONOMIST: The torment behind the camera

Born into great wealth (her maternal grandparents owned Russeks, a fancy Fifth Avenue department store), Arbus endured a lonely childhood with a depressive mother and a workaholic, womanising father.

ECONOMIST: The torment behind the camera

Her father, Allan Arbus, a former advertising photographer, starred in the 1972 cult film "Greaser's Palace, " and also appeared in the TV show "Mash" as a psychiatrist, Major Sidney Freedman.

WSJ: 'Nobody Else Sees the Way I Do'

An exhibition of Diane Arbus's photographs will be held at the Jeu de Paume, Paris, from October 18th to February 5th 2012, and then travel to Zurich, Berlin and Amsterdam.

ECONOMIST: The torment behind the camera