Arbus met these ‘two friends’ on one of her trips photographing in Washington Square Park. Arbus preferred to build up relationships with her subjects before and while she was photographing them. She liked finding out more about people’s lives and often, as is the case here, would visit people at home, where the domestic surroundings would allow her to reveal more about her subjects’ lives. The photograph itself invites questions about the relationship between the subjects: they are two women, but the androgynous dress and cropped hair of the woman who looks directly at the camera makes it hard to tell, and while the caption says they are “friends”, the women’s affectionate embrace and the rumpled bedsheets suggest a more intimate relationship.