Famous artists circulated anonymously in the East Village counterculture

Evidence

Diane Arbus, who by then was living at 120 East Tenth Street and frequenting the Dom, attended this grungier Be-In as well. Trina Robbins remembers hanging out with photographer Linda Eastman (later to marry Paul McCartney) when “this woman approaches: she’s all in studded black leather, with cameras hanging on her like outsized necklaces. It’s only 1968; I had never seen anyone in studded black leather. She sits down on the grass with Linda Eastman and they start discussing f-stops. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized she was Diane Arbus.” — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1992

Categorization

• CANDY: Diane Arbus chatting f-stops in studded black leather before anyone knew who she was is a light, memorable anecdote.