EVE : MARILYN




Background:
Eve Arnold was born in Philadelphia in 1912 to Russian immigrant parents, and was keen on photography from an early age. She took a six-week class in New York with Alexei Brodovitch, who was then the art director of Harper's Bazaar. For her first course assignment (on fashion), she chose Harlem. At that time, no American magazines featured black fashion and her pictures stood out. Her big break came when her husband sent her work to Picture Post in London. The Magnum co-operative, impressed by her work, invited her to join.

Since becoming a full member in 1957, she has travelled the world, photographing people at work and at home, capturing contrasting cultures and lifestyles. She has photographed the famous, the powerful and the ordinary, to great acclaim. She has photographed Heads of State such as Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II; film stars Marilyn Monroe (perhaps her best-known work), Joan Crawford; and religious leaders. She has shot artists, dancers and musicians, captured the collective lives of whole nations in China, America and Britain, and the individual lives of many ordinary people.


“If the photographer is interested in the people in front of his lens, and if he is compassionate, it's already a lot. The instrument is not the camera but the photographer.” Eve Arnold


Whatever her subject, she brings an acute and perceptive vision and a rare humour. Her celebrated collection of photographs in China, won the National Book Award in 1980. In the same year, she also received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Magazine Photographers. More recently, she has published her memoirs and her work has been the subject of a major international retrospective. Eve's negatives are now retained by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.