Analysis Of A Photograph

Analysis of "King and Queen, Senior Citizens" Photograph

The image being analyzed here is Diane Arbus's photograph, "The King and Queen: Senior Citizens", taken in 1970. This image shows an elderly man and woman who are being photographed with capes and crowns. They are seated far apart and do not show any type of acknowledgement towards each other. This image appears to be about the relationship between the people in the photograph. There are many scenarios that could describe what is going on in this image.

The woman in the photo appears to be somewhere in her mid-60s. She has short brown hair and retro-looking glasses on that look like they came straight out of the 80s. She is wearing a leopard print dress and blacks sandals. She looks like an older woman attempting to dress as a teenager. On top of her head is a crown fit for a queen and over her dress is a silky cape. She has a wrapped gift seated on her lap. The man in the image appears to be in his mid-80s. He is dressed in a suit and is wearing glasses. He too is wearing a crown on his head and a cape over his clothes. They look like they were just crowned king and queen of the dance. They are being photographed on a bench in front of a wall. They look as if they are being posed for the photo because they are looking straight ahead towards the camera.

These two individuals are seated pretty far away from each other. They appear to be unhappy and do not at all look to excited about there king and queen status. Perhaps they do not know each other and wish that they were sitting next to their significant other rather than some stranger or maybe they are a couple who have just had a spat. Either way, they obviously do not want to be seated next to each other judging by the distance between them. It looks as if these two people were at a dance, perhaps maybe a "prom" at a senior citizens home, and they were just voted