In the mid-1950s, Diane Arbus abandoned her career as a fashion photographer and began developing her oeuvre of direct, arresting portraits. Drawn to a wide range of subjects, she often photographed people who stood outside of societal norms; nudists, dwarfs, and the mentally handicapped were the focus of many of her most compelling images. This photograph of a Brooklyn family on a Sunday outing—one of ten Arbus chose in 1970 to represent her best work—exemplifies her uncanny ability to reveal something raw beneath the surface of the people she photographed. Taking the “ordinary” family outing as her subject, Arbus wryly juxtaposed the notion of idyllic family togetherness with a sense of isolation that is conveyed by the disconnected gaze of each subject, the odd appearance of the mother and the young boy, and the quiet haze of their urban environment.