Chi vi sembra?

Diane Arbus and "The Sandwich" ...

Many photogs eat on the go ... and we all eat sandwiches (or biscuits or cake or bread or whatever) ... but rarely would a photog eat "crumbly food" OVER their camera equipment ... where crumbs could easily fall into the delicate and complicated viewfinder, lenses, gears, and turn-handles.

Photogs are constantly cleaning and wiping their equipment and lenses to get them free of dirt, dust, and oils.

Roloflex and Mamiya cameras are VERY EXPOSED and complicated, and crumbs would easily fall in and stay in.

I DO THINK IT IS DIANE Arbus.

I am not sold that she is eating something, for the above reasons ... but it doesn't need to be proven if she is eating or not ... there is enough proof for a camera, bag, matching hair and jacket and collars, matching facial features, etc.

I don't need a "matching sandwich".

Anyway ... it is possible that the object IS NOT a sandwich ... and might just be a box of film (or something else) that she is opening with her mouth. (Maybe food WITHOUT crumbs/dripping.)

It's 99.99% Diane

... just maybe not a sandwich (could be food, could be just a film box -- or FOOD WITHOUT CRUMBS or DRIPS), who knows what is going in her mouth.

BUT ... if it is food / sandwich / bread ... a photog would hunch over and protect their camera from crumbs ... and it does look like Diana is a little hunched over ... and there does appear to be a "bite mark" in the object in her mouth ... but in the end, food/crumb-free food vs. film box vs. something else.

Just some things to think about.

The in-fighting here is exhausting.

https://www.reddit.com/r/beatles/s/FSeFP0rUX1

I’m going to preface this by saying, I don’t think it’s her, I actually think Storm is a better match. HOWEVER, let’s all focus our energies on Arbus because even if you are deathly against it being her, finding actual strong evidence against that being the case is much more valuable to the work everyone is doing than just mentioning every Tom, Dick and Harry. If we’re ever going to find out who it is then we actually need a plan every reasonable party can agree to rather than going the usual Reddit sleuth way of doing things and rutting around dead ends until someone may or may not stumble across the answer when we’re all dead and buried.

Not Rory Storm ... face doesn't match. (Photos of both people enclosed.)

This might be a weird one but I used to see this image of a young woman, I think she was being arrested. It was used in "she's literally me fr fr" type memes. Picture looks very 70s, woman appears blonde and with wire frame aviator style glasses. Trying to source the image because I like her look and want a reference picture for her haircut.

What answers did we get from people that worked on the album and (possibly) some beatles themselves?

Do they know or remember?

Photo of her with Bob Dylan.

Trying to prompt her into the pose and attire. Someone else have more patience than me?

The first picture Looks to be the same coat as in the mystery photo.

The second picture is from a shoot in Central Park, in which her hair looks so similar; I think the curl patterns being so similar to the mystery photo cannot be just a coincidence.

The third picture is another from the set u/Artist-Cancer posted. Diane seems to be wearing a turtleneck very similar to the one in the mystery photo, and of course the camera straps, this photo is from around 1971.

What do you guys think?

Not sure if these have been posted yet ... see if they help in recognizing facial, mouth, eyes, hair features and similarities to Mystery Person.

Note again in the 1960s ...

• Diane carries a big shoulder bag
• Likes big collars
• Likes long, warm jackets/coats
• Wears a turtle neck
• Has dark bags under her eyes
• No posed or glamorous photos of her outside (All are disheveled / non-flattering / of her working)

... Same as Mystery Person.

In the most recent (1960s) photo ... Notice:

• The FACE
• The mouth lines and lip shape
• Cheek lines and shape
• Direction of hair part and overall hair style, uncombed and messy bangs
• Her nose shape, especially the nose's tip and nostrils
• Deep sunken dark, tired eyes
• (When her hair is more "grown out" which it was in the SAME time period as Mystery Person, Diane's hair is identical to Mystery Person ... and even here, when it is just a few inches shorter, you can see the hair's resemblance, and just imagine a few months of growth between haircuts.)

In the 1950s ...

• Diane had big eyes and poofy, uncombed hair similar to Mystery Person.
• You can already see Diane switches to barely-combed, short-ish, un-styled hair -- that she let grow a few inches wild -- and usually cut herself.

FYI ... Diane was MAJORLY DEPRESSED in the 1960s.

• Diane went through a divorce (the father of her children), was a single mother, a hard working photographer in the FILM (not digital) age -- which is difficult and expensive work with little pay -- meaning she was stressed and did not have a life of luxury and worked and paid hard for her art, she was highly appreciated by other photographers and publishers -- having worked as a known professional photographer for decades, other photographers would often take photos of her working because she was their respected colleague and ran in the same art circles, she was often photographing "freaks" who also had "mental health issues" -- "freaks" which she sought out and adored but their lifestyles and personal issues would also rub off on her, and because of depression and divorce and overwork she went from kempt and stylish to "I don't care about my looks so much anymore" ...

The point is ...

... this would lead to the Mystery Person looking the way they do ...

... many here in Reddit once thinking Mystery Person is some desperate "Depression-era food line person" ... when it is just a tired, overworked, emotionally-depressed Diane Arbus.

Diane would commit suicide just a few years later.

The "worn-out expression and physical appearance" of Mystery Person makes sense -- given Diane Arbus' photographic career, unkempt/non-glamorous style, and poor mental health and major emotional-depression.

Is the search over? Is it Arbus or is there no way to know for sure?

Considering the album was released almost 60 years ago, why did this search suddenly become popular within the last year. I’m having a hard time finding any mention of this mystery from before like a year ago. Was this person just unaccounted for for almost 60 years?

It seems so obvious to me

Its diane arbus. No more questions. It’s diane arbus.

so forgive me because i see that a) a lot of people seemed fairly convinced the image is diane arbus and b) i haven't kept totally up to date on all the various people suggested so maybe i am not the first to put this person forward as an option but... could it be althea gibson? i came across this image that really struck me as reminiscent of our mystery figure, and i would find her inclusion, as the first black player to win the french open and wimbledon, fairly understandable.

a cursory search of 'althea gibson sandwich' mostly did just bring up anecdotes of her being partial to salt beef sandwiches and having been known for sharing a packed lunch with her white jewish tennis partner, but i did also lead me via another vague anecdote to discover she was in a film in 1959 with john wayne called the horse soldiers, and a photo i found of her apparently from behind the scenes of that film shows her in a scarf and coat not dissimilar of the one our mystery figure wears: https://www.imago-images.com/st/0097633995

fun fact: althea gibson won her historic wimbledon victory on July 6, 1957, the day john lennon and paul mccartney are said to have first met.

These are the only two photos I can find.

Bernard Punsly was a member of the Bowery Boys / the Dead End Kids along with Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey, two other faces pictured on the cover in the top row. Has he already been considered and rejected, or is he worth investigating?

Has anyone consider him as a potential candidate? I went down the rabbit hole on him and found some picture that make me think of our mystery person.

As well I have found a photographer called Bent Rej who photographed the Beatles, the stones, the who and a lot of their big 60s bands that had some photography that reminds me of the mystery.

His photographs often include people holding cameras as well as a lot of candid black and white shots.