“Whenever I give a talk about my work I am invariably asked who my influences are. Not what my influences are, but who. As if the gutter, misunderstandings, memories, sex, dreams, and books matter less than the forebears do. After all, in terms of influences, it is as much the guy who mugged me on 10th Street, or my beloved dog who passed away much too early, as it was Giotto or Diane Arbus.”
—Robert Gober

Made in 1976, the year Gober moved to New York City after graduating from college, this photograph features a bedspread, a plate with a watermelon rind and seeds, and the 1972 monograph Diane Arbus, the first book on her work, published one year after she took her own life. Discussing the affinities between Gober’s work and Arbus’s, Hilton Als has said that “the true realm of both artists is reflection, reflection made manifest; Gober and Arbus bring the viewer up close and distance him, simultaneously.”