The Arbus image dates from a time (1960s) in which the unheroic subject, looking wan, perhaps clueless, fortified with external trappings of patriotism like scaffolding, could be read easily as a kind of ironic notation by the photographer regarding the subject at hand - the dream of the flag (& rally) apparent along with the immediate sad reality of its abject participant. Arbus was not a documentary photographer in the professional sense of the term, but her photographs are full of information. I would also state that the image, while with very distinct precedents in composition (August Sander) and subject (Weegee, Lisette Model), is still quite fresh and quite cheeky, unburdened by its “genealogy” - in contradistinction to the studied, deliberate professionalized photography (both art & journalistic) of our time. Given how we all now so routinely perform for the camera, both real & imaginary. these days, there's an “emptiness” in Arbus' image which while it could be perceived as a form of morbidity, can be appreciated for its lack of mediatized “noise.”